[brannelford]

Regarding poverty and crime...

A huge disparity between the wealthiest and poorest members in a society arguably results in a higher crime rate than those situations where the majority of citizens are poorer. Therefore, I'm not sure that it's relevant to compare West Virginia society to Winnipeg as an argument to suggest that poverty doesn't affect the crime rate.

Regarding crime in the US, I believe crime is higher in the city proper (as opposed to consolidated metropolitan areas) possibly because there is a larger concentration of poor and marginalized people (Blacks) in the US city cores. This is just an observation, as I have no ready stats to back this up.