What does it mean when we say that there is a "universal" nature to crime and poverty in our society?

Question

We also have to use examples from the US war on drugs and the book On the Run to explain our answer

Answer 1

The other two responses do not address the idea of universality, which is crucial to this question. The universal nature of crime and poverty refers to the idea that the phenomena of crime and poverty are not reserved to a specific group, situation or status. Poverty affects all types of people and crime is committed by all types of people irrespective of the aforementioned elements. Depending on the context, this could mean a number of things but generally the idea is that these problems are not explained simply by circumstances or even culture but that they are, on an interactional and sociological level, byproducts of all types of people and societies.

Answer 2

While almost every society or culture contains the concepts of "crime" and "poverty" how those concepts are defined tends to vary.  Most countries or society agree that certain acts (e.g. murder, rape, robbery) are crimes, beyond these acts, there can be disagreement as to what constitutes a crime.  As such, the relationship between crime and poverty may often be seen as a causal one where poverty can often be a driving force behind the commission of a crime.  The idea here might be that an individual in poverty may assess their situation as one where there is little to lose and thus the attraction of committing a crime increases.  Put simply, when the potential benefits outweigh the risks, a person in poverty may be more driven to commit a crime. 

Answer 3

It sounds as though this question is asking about the relationsip between criminal activity and poverty, and how crime can be a byproduct of poverty.