structural:scholar_edition, information:extraction, structural:summarization
Characteristics

The underclass is located by a collection of identifying characteristics, such as high levels of joblessness, out-of-wedlock births, crime, violence, substance abuse, and high school dropout rates. The underclass harbors these traits to a greater degree than the general population, and other classes more specifically.

Joel Rogers and James Wright identify four general themes by which these characteristics are organized within academic and journalistic accounts of the underclass: economic, social-psychological, behavioral, and ecological (spatial concentration).