Members of the criminal underworld are alienated from their societies and may characterize themselves as such not only by idiom, but by mannerisms, clothes, and a range of behavioural preferences and adaptations.
A criminal sub-culture is in evidence in most large cities in the industrialized west, and is a phenomenon of growing concern in most of the rest of the world. A recent study in the USA on convicted murderers showed that 60% had been abused children, 50% came from broken homes, 65% never finished high school, 70% lived below the poverty line, and 60% were unemployed at the time of the commission of their crime.