Abstract: Based on the historical and investigator documents, this paper discusses crime and poverty and their relations in Beijing area at the time of the beginning of Republic of China. The problem of crime at this time was serious. The two typical features were the rapid growth of the number of criminals and the predominance of economic crimes. Poverty was the chief reason causing the occurrence of crimes. Poverty and crime fell into a vicious circle, which made the society of Beijing area decline gradually and had passive and negative effects on the modernization of Beijing area.