ABSTRACT
Living in poverty has a tremendous psychological impact. To ensure both mental and physical survival, the poor sometimes resort to activities in which under normal circumstances they would not engage. Although crime and involvement in the drug industry are considered socially unacceptable, ultimately they generate a source of income that might not otherwise be available. Furthermore, studies indicate that other socially unacceptable activities such as teenage pregnancies and involvement in gangs can be considered as efforts by the young to achieve status and self-esteem, qualities of which they have been deprived as a result of living in poverty (Anderson, 1990). Certainly, not everyone living under the pressures of poverty engages in such activities; yet it cannot be denied that examples of social dislocation occur at much higher levels within urban areas than within suburban areas.
