Young adults and adolescents growing up in poverty can have dramatic consequences on their lives. “Adolescents committed more crimes than other age groups only in high-poverty areas. In areas where teenagers had as much money as other middle-aged people, they tended to commit fewer violent crimes” (Kirchner). Mike Males discovered this claim in a new study he was working on on poverty and crime, proving that poverty and the living conditions of young people will affect the crimes they commit. When adolescents grow up in disgusting living conditions, they tend not to be mentally and even physically aware of their surroundings and their actions..