On Easter night, five children—four girls and a boy—ranging in age from eleven to fifteen were walking away from a park in the South Side of Chicago when a car approached them and the occupants asked the children if they were members of a particular gang. Before they could answer, or as they began saying “no”—reports differ on that point—the occupants fired shots at them. These were kids, walking away from a park, in one of our nation’s many impoverished neighborhoods. Poverty is an unfortunate reality for more than one out of five children, or approximately 16 million children, in this country. And all too often, that means living in a community in which the risks of crime are high, opportunities are limited, and fear of violence has shaped daily lives and altered childhoods.

Previous work by The Hamilton Project emphasized the challenges facing low-income families in this country. That policy memo highlighted the stark fact that nearly 20 percent of American families with children are officially classified as poor—which for a family of two adults and two children means having an annual income of less than $24,000—and an additional 30 percent have sufficiently low income that they live with many of the same stressors that come from being poor. It also emphasized the challenge of food insecurity facing many Americans, with approximately 22 percent of our nation’s children living in households in which parents worry about having enough food to feed their family. Another Hamilton Project policy memo examined the limited economic mobility for low-income individuals in this country. As just one example, a child born to the lowest income quintile, or to the poorest fifth of parents, has a 43 percent chance of remaining in that income quintile, or being very poor, as an adult.

This month The Hamilton Project highlights another major obstacle in the lives of our nation’s poorest citizens: the very real threat of crime. Compared to other developed nations, the United States has relatively high rates of violent crime; indeed, among all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations, the United States ranks third in rates of intentional homicide, fourth in rates of rape, and eighth in rates of robbery. And much of this crime falls disproportionately on America’s poor.

The figure below, drawn from a forthcoming set of economic facts on crime and incarceration, shows that victimization rates for all types of personal crimes are significantly higher for individuals living in low-income households. In 2008—the latest year for which data are available—the victimization rate for all personal crimes among individuals with family incomes of less than $15,000 was over three times the rate of individuals with family incomes of $75,000 or more. The most prevalent personal crimes for low-income victims are assault and acts of attempted violence, at 33 victims and 28 victims per 1,000 persons age twelve or older, respectively.