THE FACE OF SOCIAL AND STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE: CRIME AND POVERTY AS DIFFERENT EXPRESSIONS OF A COMMON VULNERABILITY

Abstract

This article aims to analyze in a general manner, the foundation of the social and structural violence phenomenon, in order to demystify any possible causal relationship between poverty and crime, and to seek its recognition as manifestations of the same process of vulnerability, which increasingly removes most human beings from fully exercising their rights and opportunities. As a product of the journey made, it is concluded that the distorted idea that offenders are poor people, obscures the social vulnerability of specific human groups and leads to obviate the occurrence of certain crimes, denying the real causes of criminal behavior, which are found in the current socioeconomic system that increases social gaps and lacks foundations based on the expansion of capabilities and real citizen freedom (Sen, 1985).