---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The common argument that crime is caused…"
description: "\"The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.\" — H. L. Mencken"
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3a/h-l-mencken-245_argument_the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused_1565378.png"
---

#  The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a…

![“The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3a/h-l-mencken-245_argument_the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused_1565378.png)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3a/h-l-mencken-245_argument_the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused_1565378.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3a/h-l-mencken-245_argument_the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused_1565378.png)

> “The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.”

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Blaming poverty alone for crime unfairly stigmatizes the poor and oversimplifies causes.

**In simple terms:** Crime isn’t just about poverty.

Key Takeaway

Consider multiple factors behind crime.

Themes

social justice poverty crime

Mood

critical analytical

Type

sociopolitical philosophical

When to use this quote

- criminal justice reform
- public policy debates
- community outreach

Key Concepts

structural inequality stereotypes policy analysis

Questions to Reflect On

- What other causes contribute to crime?
- How can we address stereotypes?

A Different Perspective

Economic solutions alone may not reduce crime.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

[Argument](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/argument/) [Crime](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/crime/) [Poverty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poverty/) [Slander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/slander/)

## Related quotes

> [I. cannot stoop to reply to the folly and the slander of every poor Tory partisan who assails me, and I should not have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-bright/i-cannot-stoop-to-reply-to-the-folly-and-the-slander-of-every-poor/)

[John Bright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-bright/)

> [ \[T\]here is only one sound argument for democracy, and that is the argument that it is a crime for any man to hold himself… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/t-here-is-only-one-sound-argument-for-democracy-and-that-is-the/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Far from the West having caused the poverty in the Third World, contact with the West has been the principal agent of material progress…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-thomas-bauer/far-from-the-west-having-caused-the-poverty-in-the-third-world/)

Peter Thomas Bauer

> [So i say, change the base! If you change the base, anybody will be as tall as anybody else! My belief is poverty is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/muhammad-yunus/so-i-say-change-the-base-if-you-change-the-base-anybody-will-be-as/)

[Muhammad Yunus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/muhammad-yunus/)

> [I think there is a lot of crime caused by desperation, and it doesn't mean that people commit crime because they're poor, but certainly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-moskos/i-think-there-is-a-lot-of-crime-caused-by-desperation-and-it-doesn-t/)

[Peter Moskos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-moskos/)

> [Our information network is much better protected than our railroad network, and someone who cracks a system is able to cause far less human…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-platt/our-information-network-is-much-better-protected-than-our-railroad/)

[Charles Platt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-platt/)

> [Many writers claim that nearly all crime is caused by economic conditions, or in other words that poverty is practically the whole cause of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clarence-darrow/many-writers-claim-that-nearly-all-crime-is-caused-by-economic/)

[Clarence Darrow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clarence-darrow/)

> [I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-thatcher/i-always-cheer-up-immensely-if-an-attack-is-particularly-wounding/)

[Margaret Thatcher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-thatcher/)

> [On Rumor's tongue continual slanders ride.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/on-rumor-s-tongue-continual-slanders-ride/)

[William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/)

> [The tongue of slander is too prompt with wanton malice to wound the stranger.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aeschylus/the-tongue-of-slander-is-too-prompt-with-wanton-malice-to-wound-the/)

[Aeschylus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aeschylus/)

> [Don't you understand anything? Isn't it absolutely essential to keep a fierce Left and a fierce Right, both on their toes and each terrified…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-s-lewis/don-t-you-understand-anything-isn-t-it-absolutely-essential-to-keep-a/)

[C. S. Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-s-lewis/)

> [The most effective method of propaganda directed at the enemy forces is to release captured soldiers and give the wounded medical treatment... Whenever soldiers…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mao-zedong/the-most-effective-method-of-propaganda-directed-at-the-enemy-forces/)

[Mao Zedong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mao-zedong/)

> [“Slander does to a soul what cancer does to a cell.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/criss-jami/slander-does-to-a-soul-what-cancer-does-to-a-cell/)

[Criss Jami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/criss-jami/)

> [Slander is a poison which kills charity, both in the slanderer and the one who listens.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bernard-of-clairvaux/slander-is-a-poison-which-kills-charity-both-in-the-slanderer-and-the/)

[Bernard of Clairvaux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bernard-of-clairvaux/)

> [Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-the-great/ring-out-false-pride-in-place-and-blood-the-civic-slander-and-the/)

[Alfred the Great](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-the-great/)

## More by H. L. Mencken

> [Alimony - the ransom that the happy pay to the devil.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/alimony-the-ransom-that-the-happy-pay-to-the-devil/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [A bad artist almost always tries to conceal his incompetence by whooping up a new formula.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/a-bad-artist-almost-always-tries-to-conceal-his-incompetence-by/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [ By profession a biologist, \[Thomas Henry Huxley\] covered in fact the whole field of the exact sciences, and then bulged through its four fences.… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/by-profession-a-biologist-thomas-henry-huxley-covered-in-fact-the/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [So few men are really worth knowing, that it seems a shameful waste to let an anthropoid prejudice stand in the way of free…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/so-few-men-are-really-worth-knowing-that-it-seems-a-shameful-waste-to/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Man's objection to love is that it dies hard; woman's, that when it is dead, it stays dead.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/man-s-objection-to-love-is-that-it-dies-hard-woman-s-that-when-it-is/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [The lunatic fringe wags the underdog.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-lunatic-fringe-wags-the-underdog/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [For it is an absurdity to call a country civilized in which a decent and industrious man, laboriously mastering a trade which is valuble…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/for-it-is-an-absurdity-to-call-a-country-civilized-in-which-a-decent/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/women-have-simple-tastes-they-get-pleasure-out-of-the-conversation-of/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [The critic, to interpret his artist, even to understand his artist, must be able to get into the mind of his artist; he must…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-critic-to-interpret-his-artist-even-to-understand-his-artist-must/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get. On the contrary, they tend…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/there-is-in-fact-nothing-about-religious-opinions-that-entitles-them/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/don-t-overestimate-the-decency-of-the-human-race/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/liberty-was-a-two-headed-boon-there-was-first-the-liberty-of-the/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [To the extent that I am genuinely educated, I am suspicious of all the things that the average citizen believes and the average pedagogue…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/to-the-extent-that-i-am-genuinely-educated-i-am-suspicious-of-all-the/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Philosophy first constructs a scheme of happiness and then tries to fit the world to it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/philosophy-first-constructs-a-scheme-of-happiness-and-then-tries-to/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [For it is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that tendency it is not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/for-it-is-the-natural-tendency-of-the-ignorant-to-believe-what-is-not/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Explore all 827 H. L. Mencken quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

## More Argument quotes

> [A flourishing, morally credible media is a vital component in the maintenance of genuinely public talk, argument about common good.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rowan-williams/a-flourishing-morally-credible-media-is-a-vital-component-in-the/)

[Rowan Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rowan-williams/)

> [Preaching to the choir actually arms the choir with arguments and elevates the choir's discourse. There's a reason the right does it and does…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dan-savage/preaching-to-the-choir-actually-arms-the-choir-with-arguments-and/)

[Dan Savage](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dan-savage/)

> [Lutherans, whose arguments and mistakes will not be difficult to contest or discover, do not want to attribute any value to works, and they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-servetus/lutherans-whose-arguments-and-mistakes-will-not-be-difficult-to/)

[Michael Servetus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-servetus/)

> [Any comprehensive doctrine, religious or secular, can be introduced into any political argument at any time, but I argue that people who do this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-rawls/any-comprehensive-doctrine-religious-or-secular-can-be-introduced/)

[John Rawls](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-rawls/)

> [As opposed to getting into arguments about, well, these folks have been treated fairly so now we're going to be doing things that, very…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barack-obama/as-opposed-to-getting-into-arguments-about-well-these-folks-have-been/)

[Barack Obama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barack-obama/)

> [There could be no more powerful argument against mixing religion and government than the success of independent African American churches in placing racial segregation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-jacoby/there-could-be-no-more-powerful-argument-against-mixing-religion-and/)

[Susan Jacoby](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-jacoby/)

> [The inner defenses are unconscious. They consist of a kind of magic aura which the mind builds around cherished belief. Arguments which penetrate into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-koestler/the-inner-defenses-are-unconscious-they-consist-of-a-kind-of-magic/)

[Arthur Koestler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-koestler/)

> [On the stage, the characters express themselves more through words than images. So the arguments of the characters and the tension between characters -…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-alda/on-the-stage-the-characters-express-themselves-more-through-words/)

[Alan Alda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-alda/)

> [One argument goes that recessions are good for female artists because when money flies out the window, women are allowed in the house. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-saltz/one-argument-goes-that-recessions-are-good-for-female-artists-because/)

[Jerry Saltz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerry-saltz/)

> [All of the barriers to innovation in the energy sector are arguments for a big commitment to public investment. Only the public sector can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ted-nordhaus/all-of-the-barriers-to-innovation-in-the-energy-sector-are-arguments/)

[Ted Nordhaus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ted-nordhaus/)

> [“Arguments led by subjectivity are a waste of time. And, if they take place online, add to that, a waste of one’s keyboard.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mokokoma-mokhonoana/arguments-led-by-subjectivity-are-a-waste-of-time-and-if-they-take/)

[Mokokoma Mokhonoana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mokokoma-mokhonoana/)

> [If in the middle of an argument I suddenly fall silent it does not mean you have won... No it means you should probably…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hussein-nishah/if-in-the-middle-of-an-argument-i-suddenly-fall-silent-it-does-not/)

[Hussein Nishah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hussein-nishah/)

> [Don't get divorced after your first argument! I have a lot of friends that have one fight and that's it, they get divorced. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kelly-ripa/don-t-get-divorced-after-your-first-argument-i-have-a-lot-of-friends/)

[Kelly Ripa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kelly-ripa/)

> [“The motive behind my arguments have always been to come at truth. I am not interested in conquering anyone with my ideologies or seeking…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/crystal-evans/the-motive-behind-my-arguments-have-always-been-to-come-at-truth-i-am/)

[Crystal Evans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/crystal-evans/)

> [In presenting a mathematical argument the great thing is to give the educated reader the chance to catch on at once to the momentary…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-edensor-littlewood/in-presenting-a-mathematical-argument-the-great-thing-is-to-give-the/)

[John Edensor Littlewood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-edensor-littlewood/)

[Browse all 3,479 Argument quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/argument/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Quotation",
            "text": "The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.",
            "creator": {
                "@type": "Person",
                "name": "H. L. Mencken"
            },
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused-by-poverty-is-a-kind-of/",
            "about": {
                "@type": "Thing",
                "name": "Argument"
            },
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused-by-poverty-is-a-kind-of/#quotation",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3a/h-l-mencken-245_argument_the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused_1565378.png",
                "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3a/h-l-mencken-245_argument_the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused_1565378.png",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c3a/h-l-mencken-245_argument_the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused_1565378.png",
                "width": 1080,
                "height": 1080,
                "caption": "“The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.” — H. L. Mencken",
                "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                "creator": {
                    "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "H. L. Mencken",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "The common argument that crime is...",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused-by-poverty-is-a-kind-of/"
                }
            ],
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-common-argument-that-crime-is-caused-by-poverty-is-a-kind-of/#breadcrumb"
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
