Tending to produce or cause criminal behavior; conducive to the development of crime.
From Latin 'crimen' (crime) plus Greek '-genic' or '-genous' meaning 'producing or generating.' The term was developed in criminology and sociology to describe environmental or social factors that encourage crime.
Criminogenic is criminology's way of asking: does poverty cause crime, or does crime cause poverty? The word itself embodies this debate—it claims certain conditions literally *generate* crime, which is a huge claim with profound policy implications.
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