Poverty, Inequality, and Youth Violence

Recent school shooting incidents have served to highlight the social problem of lethal violence by young people in the United States. While many factors need to be considered, this article argues that broader social and economic forces such as poverty, inequality, and social exclusion shape most of the problem of youth violence in America. These structural factors tend to foster violence indirectly through their impact on the close-in institutions of the family, school, and community. Using the organizing concepts of social support and informal social controls, the article examines theory and research on the connections between economic inequality and social exclusion, the close-in institutions of family and community, and violent youth crime. It is argued that structural forces reduce the ability of families and communities to provide the social support and informal social control needed to prevent youth violence. Policy implications are briefly discussed.