According to ‘The War on Poverty After 50 Years’,
“U.S. taxpayers have spent over $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs. Yet progress against poverty…has been minimal, and in terms of President Johnson’s main goal of reducing the ‘causes’ rather than the mere ‘consequences’ the War on Poverty has failed completely.”
The report continues,
“despite spending three times the cost of all U.S. military wars since the American Revolution, a significant portion of the population is now less capable of self-sufficiency than it was when the War on Poverty began.”
New research may help explain the decrease in self-sufficiency despite the increase in spending.
Studies suggests experiences with poverty can create emotional regulatory issues when responding to stress. These issues, researchers theorize, can create irregular brain patterns and show up as erratic, uncontrolled, inconsistent, volatile and/or aggressive behaviors.
Divestment in urban centers heightened economic turmoil in major cities across the country. Shifting demand in manufacturing jobs; technological advancement; deteriorating infrastructure; and relocation of thriving job markets, all helped to disconnect Black communities from economic opportunity and to create distressing conditions.
Live in poverty for years, or even generations, and the effects of poverty become entrenched. Evidence suggests chronic stressors created from impoverished conditions are changing the body’s stress regulatory systems, or the way the body handles stress. These changes are having long-term, negative effects, mainly on the body’s hormones and nervous system, for people experiencing poverty. According to studies, these ‘neurobiological changes’ are in response to external stressors.
Over the course of a longitudinal study — which included 49 rural, white children of varying incomes, researchers found that poor children, in effect, had more problems regulating their emotions as they grew into adulthood. The same poor children who were exposed to prolonged sources of stress; like violence, family turmoil, or crowded and poor housing, developed dysfunctional behavioral patterns.
According to studies,
“these same patterns of ‘dysregulation’ in the brain have been observed in people with depression, anxiety disorders, aggression and post-traumatic stress disorders.”
In effect, The dsyregulation of brain patterns caused by stress may led to mental health issues. These issues may diminish the quality of life, relationships, health, and overall health for those experiencing chronic stress.
People who experience chronic stress early in life have higher chances of experiencing harmful encounters meant to correct the consequences of early stress. Criminal justice professor Dr. Todd R. Clear noted the ‘long history of criminology research in creating forceful public policy geared towards punishing criminals for crimes rather than addressing root cause.
The Department of Justice reported that 1 in every 17 white male was incarcerated between 1974 and 2001; Latino men were incarcerated at a rate of 1 to 6; and Black men were incarcerated at a rate of 1 to 3. One in 18 Black women; one in every 45 Latino women; and 1 in every 111 white women were incarcerated over the same time period.
In his book Harm in American Penology: Offenders, Victims, and Their Communities, Professor Clear noted that the offender punishment and control paradigm is the idea that the proper response to crime is incarceration and coercion.
“The reason being that the various strategies for offender change have all been proven widely incapable of reducing crime.”
It’s been known that poverty cuts off vital resources, but the lack of access to resources creates chronic stress. People who are forced to deal with prolonged sources of stress; like violence, family turmoil, or crowded and poor housing, become increasingly challenged to conform their behaviors in overcoming chronic stress.
BADGER, E. (2013, August 29). How Poverty Taxes the Brain. citylab.
BADGER, E. (2013, October 28). The Lasting Impacts of Poverty on the Brain. Citylab.
Clear, T. R. (1994). Harm in American Penology: Offenders, Victims, and Their Communities. Albany: SUNY Press.
McEwen, B. S. (2013, May 2). Effects of childhood poverty and chronic stress on emotion regulatory brain function in adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
McLeod, S. 2008. Erik Erikson. Simply Psychology.
