Crime is directly related to not necessarily poverty, but income inequality. So in a given area where class contradictions are intensified, there will be more crime.

Also note that correlation is not causation. One theory regarding causation is that this is the fallout of COINTELPRO, when the CIA and local police had disrupted revolutionary movements to prevent unification against capitalism, through provoking infighting and promoting drug abuse.

In other words, crime is artificially increased to create a lower class, and contradictions within the proletariat are exacerbated to prevent unity.