Editing Underclass (section)

===Controversies amongst definitions===
Each of the above definitions are said to conceptualize the same general group – the American underclass – but they provide somewhat competing imagery. While Wright, Wilson, and Anderson each position the underclass in reference to the labor market, Auletta's definition is simply "non-assimilation" and his examples, along with Mead's definition, highlight underclass members' participation in deviant behavior and their adoption of an antisocial outlook on life. These controversies are elaborated further in the next section ("Characteristics of the Underclass").

As evident with Mead and Auletta's framing, some definitions of the underclass significantly diverge from the initial notion of an ''economic group'' beneath the working class. A few writings on the underclass distinguish between various types of underclass, such as the social underclass, the impoverished underclass, the reproductive underclass, the educational underclass, the violent underclass, and the criminal underclass, with some expected horizontal mobility between these groups.<ref name="Kelso">{{Cite book | author=Kelso, Williams | title=Poverty and The Underclass | year=1994 | publisher=NYU Press | location=N.Y. | isbn=0-8147-4661-6 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/povertyunderclas0000kels }}</ref> Even more divergent from the initial notion of an underclass are the recent journalistic accounts of a so-called "genetic underclass", referring to a genetic inheritance of a predisposition to addiction and other personality traits traditionally associated with behavioral definitions of the underclass.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/specials/sheffield_99/446035.stm | work=BBC News | title=Fears of genetic underclass unfounded | date=1999-09-16 | access-date=2010-05-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1345952/Commission-head-warns-of-genetic-underclass.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=Commission head warns of 'genetic underclass' | first=Rachael | last=Sylvester | date=2000-07-01 | access-date=2010-05-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.scotsman.com/topstories/Genetic-underclass-warning.2263621.jp | location=Edinburgh | work=The Scotsman | title=Genetic underclass warning | date=2001-09-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/30/health/personal-health-addiction-a-brain-ailment-not-a-moral-lapse.html?sec=health | work=The New York Times | title=PERSONAL HEALTH; Addiction: A Brain Ailment, Not a Moral Lapse | first=Jane E. | last=Brody | date=2003-09-30 | access-date=2010-05-26}}</ref> However, such distinctions between criminal, social, impoverished, and other specified underclass terms still refer to the same general group—those beneath the working class. And, despite recent journalistic accounts of a "genetic underclass", the underclass concept is primarily, and has traditionally been, a social science term.