One of 52 theoretical papers on school crime and its relation to poverty, this chapter states that the problem of school crime is not a school problem, but a cultural problem manifesting itself in schools. The cultural shifts of the last generation are creating adolescent needs that schools were never organized to deal with, and, therefore, schools lack the basic structural resources to satisfy these new needs. Schools were developed in an era when adolescents were an economic asset in the home, on the farm, and in the community. As America moved from a rural, labor-intensive community to a suburban, capital-intensive society, the activity-rich life of adolescents disappeared. It is necessary to recognize that school is not a satisfactory solution in the development of all adolescents, and neither is the historical fallback position of letting them drop out of school to enter full-time employment. Rather, the challenge to society is to create new roles for adolescents--to restructure societal institutions so that adolescents have meaningful tasks, meaningful relationships with adults, and meaningful opportunities for being creative, being productive, and being useful. (Author/MLF)