The Negative Effects Of Poverty

Quite often in America, poverty is looked at as something that doesn’t really affect most of us. This may largely in part be due to poverty being somewhat of a taboo term that many believe to be unique to the homeless or other nations such as third world countries. When speaking of poverty we often envision starving African children with flies surrounding their emaciated bodies with bloated bellies. While this destitution is a measure of poverty, it is an extreme form known as absolute poverty. However, by its most rudimentary definition, poverty is simply the scarcity of the very basic necessities in life, including food, clothing, shelter, and money (). In America poverty is measured by the percentage of the population with income less than …show more content…
Cognitive capacity is not just a matter of genetics, it is strongly influenced by external factors such as prenatal drug use, poor nutrition, and exposure to stress and violence which are all more prevalent in low-income households, and affect cognitive development from the prenatal stage through adulthood (Birdsong, 2016). This means that even before children of poverty stricken families are birthed into this world they are at a disadvantage. Poverty can negatively affect children’s cognitive development as well as their academic performance. Low-income families engage in much less conversation and tend to use limited vocabularies when talking with their children often “using language that is dominated by commands and simple structure, rather than by explanations and elaboration with an increase in the percentage of negative comments made” (Engle, Black, Nd). In addition, low-income families tend to use harsh parenting styles that are based on parental control, rather than reciprocal, interactive styles that promote emotional development and social competence (). In low-income families, time as well as money is scarce, and books may be considered a costly luxury (). Low-income parents are typically less literate and tend to read less to their children. About 61% of families living in poverty do not have children’s books in their homes. The outcome is an extreme difference in the early exposure to …show more content…
While people of color make up about 30 percent of the United States’ population, they account for 60 percent of those imprisoned (). This mass incarceration is often referred to as the poverty-to-prison pipeline, the school-to-prison pipeline, or the Prison Industrial Complex. Private prisons are for profit institutions. This means that the private corporations that run these prison facilities are paid by the state, and their profit depends on spending as little as possible on the prisoners and the prisons. Since 1980, the prison population in the United States has tripled (Ford, 2016). However, the rate of violent crimes has been on such a decline that in 2010 the nation hit an all time low (Ford, 2016). Of course this is not good for the profiteers of private prisons, as an empty prison does not make them money. Therefore, many states are being urged into contracts with the prisons, pledging to keep the prison anywhere from 70% to 97% full, at all times (Kirkham, 2013). These lockup quotas are put in place to ensure that private prisons turn a profit (Kirkham, 2013). If a certain number of beds are not filled, states must pay the prison companies for the unused beds – leaving taxpayers footing the bill for lower crime rates” (Kirkham, 2013). States such as Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Arizona, and California among others each have lockup quotas. In order to avoid paying these