The poor, as a sociological category, are not those who suffer specific deficiencies and deprivations, but those who receive assistance or should receive it according to social norms. Consequently, in this sense, poverty cannot be defined in itself as a quantitative state, but only in terms of the social reaction resulting from a specific situation; it is analogous to the way crime, the substantive definition of which offers such difficulties, is defined as “an action punished by public sanctions.”

DEFINE: A sociologically relational definition of poverty that parallels legal definitions of crime — both hinge on social/sanctioning responses rather than intrinsic characteristics. XREF: Connects to relative poverty discussions and interactionist/ labeling theory in sociology, akin to Becker's labeling of deviance.

XREF: Echoes labeling theory in criminology (Becker) and the social construction of deviance; parallels how categories are constituted by institutional response rather than intrinsic qualities.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 445