One of the statements in that discussion was that poverty was a cause of crime. I want to discuss Cause and Effect. Poverty is not a cause of crime. Poverty and crime are both a result of the breakdown in the pillars of what is requried to build a stable society. The debate of what those pillars are is a long discussion in itself. poverty may leed to crime but there are lots of honest yet poor people. The same set of conditions that lead to poverty also breed crime. One does not automatically cause the other, but other causes will create both.
The whole notion of 'cause and effect' in human society is essentially meaningless, no more than a stolen metaphor, what philosophers might deem a 'category error'.
However, the so-called 'social sciences' require such a foundation, however substanceless it may be, to legitimize their human-engineering enterprise.
You are correct to dismiss it.