Editing Underclass (section)

===Focus on behavior===
[[Lawrence M. Mead]] defines the underclass as a group that is poor and behaviorally deficient. He describes the underclass as ''dysfunctional.'' He provides the following definition in his 1986 book, ''Beyond Entitlement'',

{{quote|The underclass is most visible in urban slum settings and is about 70 percent nonwhite, but it includes many rural and white people as well, especially in Appalachia and the South. Much of the urban underclass is made up of street hustlers, welfare families, drug addicts, and former mental patients. There are, of course, people who function well – the so-called 'deserving' or 'working poor' – and better-off people who function poorly, but in general low income and serious behavioral difficulties go together. The underclass is not large as a share of population, perhaps 9 million people, but it accounts for the lion's share of the most serious disorders in American life, especially in the cities.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mead|first=Lawrence M.|title=Beyond Entitlement: The Social Obligations of Citizenship|year=1986|publisher=The Free Press|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-7432-2495-7|pages=22}}</ref>}}

[[Ken Auletta]], often credited as the primary journalist who brought the underclass term to the forefront of the American consciousness, describes the American underclass as non-assimilated Americans, and he suggests that the underclass may be subcategorized into four distinct groups:

{{quote|(1) the passive poor, usually long-term welfare recipients; (2) the hostile street criminals who terrorize most cities, and who are often school dropouts and drug addicts; (3) the hustlers, who, like street criminals, may not be poor and who earn their livelihood in an underground economy, but rarely commit violent crimes; (4) the traumatized drunks, drifters, homeless shopping-bag ladies, and released mental patients who frequently roam or collapse on city streets.<ref name="Underclass" />}}