So many people have been affected by the outcome of having a criminal record. More than 70 million people in the United States — or more than one in five people — have a criminal record. That figure includes about 45 million Americans, or about 14 percent of the population, with misdemeanor convictions. And while misdemeanors often involve lower-level crimes, they can nonetheless lead to severe, long-term financial losses. People with a misdemeanor conviction experience reduced annual earnings by an average of 16 percent — losses that total nearly $100,000 over the course of a lifetime (The Misdemeanor System Reinforces Economic Inequality). This just goes to show how the long-term financial losses so many people are experiencing are really harming their personal economics and harming the nation's economy as a whole, since so many people are struggling. There are also lots of social problems that create crime—such as poverty and joblessness—and transform the workings of the global economy. This leads to more criminals laundering money, polluting the environment, and exposing their employees to dangerous working conditions. Political Economy of Crime In
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