Input Junkie

There is evidence that countries with lower levels of income inequality have lower crime rates and that crime rates tend to increase when inequality increases (the UK is a good recent example of that). So I'm not arguing that absolute poverty causes crime, rather that income inequality is a determinant of crime rates (obviously not the only one). I suppose it's possible within that overall framework to construct some sort of narrative that says that societies with higher crime rates have more inequality because criminals are poor, as in your argument, but it seems highly improbable.