Poverty creates desperation. Desperation is eventually so normalized that it becomes part of the culture and people do things like theft even when it's unrelated to their actual level of desperation. The status quo encourages it because it's just another culture to commodify and sell back to them. It also serves the role of increasing justification for a police state. Crime is amplified by the media which scares other people and that creates political will towards increasing law enforcement. Having more law enforcement protects the property of the wealthy more than the poor. Because the poor have no property or the property they do have isn't worth as much. Hence why people steal your car and not the one out of a gated, guarded garage in a nice neighborhood. It's more accessible.