Editing Underclass (section)

==Characteristics==
The underclass is located by a collection of identifying characteristics, such as high levels of [[joblessness]], out-of-wedlock births, [[crime]], [[violence]], [[substance abuse]], and [[Dropping out|high school dropout rates]]. The underclass harbors these traits to a greater degree than the general population, and other classes more specifically.

Joel Rogers and James Wright identify four general themes by which these characteristics are organized within academic and journalistic accounts of the underclass: economic, social-psychological, behavioral, and ecological (spatial concentration).<ref>{{cite book|last=Devine|first=Joel|title=The Greatest of Evils: Urban Poverty and the American Underclass|url=https://archive.org/details/greatestofevilsu0000devi|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=Aldine De Gruyter|location=Hawthorne, NY|isbn=0-202-30474-4|author2=James Wright }}</ref>

===Economic characteristics===
The economic dimension is the most basic and least contested theme of the underclass – the underclass is overwhelmingly poor. The underclass experiences high levels of joblessness, and what little employment its members hold in the formal economy is best described as precarious labor.<ref name="Jenks growing">{{cite book|last=Jenks|first=Christopher|title="Is the American Underclass Growing?" in The Urban Underclass|year=1990|publisher=The Brookings Institution|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=0-8157-4605-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/urbanunderclass0000unse/page/28 28–100]|editor=Christopher Jenks and Paul E. Peterson|url=https://archive.org/details/urbanunderclass0000unse/page/28}}</ref> However, it is important to note that simply being poor is not synonymous with being part of the underclass. The underclass is ''persistently poor'' and, for most definitions, the underclass live in areas of [[concentrated poverty]].<ref name="TDA" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Cottingham|first=Clement|title="Introduction" in Race, Poverty, and the Urban Underclass|year=1982|publisher=Lexington Book|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=0-669-04730-9|pages=1–13|editor=Clement Cottingham}}</ref><ref name="Ricketts and Sawhill">{{cite journal|last=Ricketts|first=Erol|author2=Isabel Sawhill |title=Defining and Measuring the Underclass|journal=Journal of Policy Analysis and Management|year=1988|volume=7|series=2|issue=2|pages=316–325|jstor=3323831|doi=10.2307/3323831}}</ref> Some scholars, such as Ricketts and Sawhill, argue that being poor is not a requirement for underclass membership, and thus there are individuals who are non-poor members of the underclass because they live in "underclass areas" and embody other characteristics of the underclass, such as being violent, criminal, and anti-social (e.g., gang leaders).<ref name="Ricketts and Sawhill" />

===Social-psychological characteristics===
Many writers often highlight the social-psychological dimensions of the underclass. The underclass is often framed as holding beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and desires that are inconsistent with those held by society at large. The underclass is frequently described as a "discouraged" group with members who feel "cut off" from mainstream society.<ref name="Underclass"/> Linked to this discussion of the underclass being psychologically deviant, the underclass is also said to have low levels of cognition and literacy.<ref name="Jenks growing" /> Thus, the underclass is often seen as being mentally disconnected from the rest of society. Consider the following:

{{quote|The underclass rejects many of the norms and values of the larger society. Among underclass youth, achievement motivation is low, education is undervalued, and conventional means of success and upward mobility are scorned. There is widespread alienation from society and its institutions, estrangement, social isolation, and hopelessness, the sense that a better life is simply not attainable through legitimate means.<ref>{{cite book|last=Devine|first=Joel|title=The Greatest of Evils: Urban Poverty and the American Underclass|url=https://archive.org/details/greatestofevilsu0000devi|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=Aldine De Gruyter|location=Hawthorne, NY|isbn=0-202-30474-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/greatestofevilsu0000devi/page/84 84]|author2=James Wright }}</ref>}}

===Behavioral characteristics===
Not only is the underclass frequently said to think differently, they are also said to behave differently. Some believe that the underclass concept was meant to capture the coincidence of a number of social ills including poverty, joblessness, crime, welfare dependence, fatherless families, and low levels of education or work related skills.<ref name="Jenks growing" /><ref name="Wilson 1987 29">{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=William Julius|title=The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy|year=1987|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago, IL|isbn=0-226-90131-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/trulydisadvantag00wilsrich/page/n44 29]|url=https://archive.org/details/trulydisadvantag00wilsrich|url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Auletta|first=Ken|title=The Underclass|url=https://archive.org/details/underclass00aule|url-access=registration|year=1982|publisher=Random House|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-87951-929-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/underclass00aule/page/80 80]}}</ref> These behavioral characteristics, coupled with arguments that the underclass is psychologically disconnected from mainstream society, are occasionally highlighted as evidence that the underclass live in a [[Culture of poverty|subculture of poverty]]. From this point of view, members of the underclass embody a distinct set of thoughts, perceptions, and actions – a "style of life" - that are transmitted across generations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peterson|first=Paul|title="The Urban Underclass and the Poverty Paradox" in The Urban Underclass|year=1990|publisher=The Brookings Institution|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=0-8157-4605-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/urbanunderclass0000unse/page/3 3–27]|editor=Christopher Jenks and Paul E. Peterson|url=https://archive.org/details/urbanunderclass0000unse/page/3}}</ref> However, just as the conceptualization of a "[[culture of poverty]]" in general is debated, so too are the attempts to frame the underclass as members of such a culture.

===Ecological (spatial) characteristics===
The ecological dimension, a fourth theme in the literature on the underclass, is often used as both a description and an explanation for the underclass. The underclass is concentrated in specific areas. Although there are some writings on the "rural underclass", in general the underclass is framed as an urban phenomenon and the phrases "ghetto poverty" and "inner-city poverty" are often used synonymously with the underclass term. However, many scholars are careful not to equate [[concentrated poverty]] with the underclass. Living in areas of concentrated poverty is more or less framed as a common (and often necessary) condition of the underclass, but it is generally not considered a sufficient condition since many conceptualizations of the underclass highlight behavioral and psychological deviancy that may not necessarily persist in high-poverty areas.<ref name="Ricketts and Sawhill" /> In Wilson's writings on the underclass – a term he eventually replaces with "ghetto poverty" (see section titled "Critiques of the Underclass Concept")– the underclass is described as a population that is physically and socially isolated from individuals and institutions of mainstream society, and this isolation is one of a collection of causes to [[concentrated poverty]] and why the "social dislocations" (e.g., crime, school dropouts, out of wed-lock pregnancy, etc.) of the underclass emerge.<ref name="TDA" />

Thus, the underclass is defined and identified by multiple characteristics. Members are persistently poor and experience high levels of joblessness. However, these trends are generally not seen as sufficient identifiers of the underclass, because, for many, the underclass concept also captures dimensions of psychological and behavioral deviancy. Furthermore, the underclass is generally identified as an urban phenomenon with its members typically living in areas of concentrated poverty.