Crime for crime's sake

Nobody that is committing a crime does so purely with the intention of committing crime. And higher crime in some neighborhoods than others isn't just a law of averages, we shouldn't merely put more police in a certain area that is "known for crime." We should ask the question: what does "known for crime" mean?

Most criminals are not part of an organization, and as such, there is no organization delegating nightly crime to each neighborhood to maintain an "average amount of crime." No, crime in many cases is just a synonoym for desperation. Even monstrous violent crime is simply a community cry for help, because often times it is the failure to raise a child properly that results in the more monstrous or desperate criminal activities.

And the onus is not just on the parents to raise the children right. The onus is on us to provide those parents with resources like education and healthcare, good housing, and jobs. That's what fosters good neighborhoods, not the misconception of crime as a statistical and methodical occurence. It is the failure to recognize the sporadic, frantic, and desperate nature of crime itself.

That is why it's so frustrating to see luxury housing complex after luxury housing complex being built in city after city, making residents move out of already un-affordable housing into even less affordable housing, leaving their previous places vacant. Because the person that moves from Beacon Hill to a brand new condo in the South End isn't providing an opportunity for an impoverished person to move into a good neighborhood. By building more luxury housing in the middle of the city, we are perpetuating the idea that people in poverty cannot escape it.

We need to dispel the notion that building truly affordable housing in good neighborhoods will bring crime. Instead, we need to recognize that its the lack of hope and lack of access to the city and inflation of high-priced retailers  that are fostering poverty and crime by isolating poor people, forcing them to live amongst one another and extend a sense of hopelessness.

If succeeding is the best way to ensure more success, then failure is the the best way to ensure more failure. This is not an immediate fix: housing has to be built, and even then, decades upon decades of social stigmas and the instincts of survival over success will take time to eradicate, but as with anything, the longer we wait, the longer we live an a less-than-ideal society. The only difference is that this  dystopia is one that takes people's lives and the ones it keeps are set back an entire lap behind everyone else, so those without means are losing a rigged race.