A low-life (or lowlife) is a term for a person who is considered morally unacceptable by their

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

. Examples of people society often labels low-lives include aggressive panhandlers,

bullies A bully is someone responsible for bullying, using aggression to intimidate or dominate others. Bully may also refer to: Animals * American Bully, a breed of dog * Bull Terrier or bully, a breed of dog * '' Gobiomorphus'' or bully, an Australia ...

, criminals,

drug dealers The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...

, freeloaders,

hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; and a bum neither travels nor works. E ...

s, gangsters, people who make constant use of

profanities Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, ru ...

prostitutes Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

, pimps,

scammers A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have def ...

, sexual abusers and

thieves Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some ...

. Often, the term is used as an indication of disapproval of antisocial or destructive behaviors, usually bearing a connotation of contempt and derision. This usage of the word dates to 1911. The long-term origins of the ideas behind this in the Western world trace back to ancient times with the distinction of high culture associated with

aristocracy Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At t ...

at the top of the social hierarchy who were regarded in aristocrat-dominated society as compared with low culture associated with commoners at the bottom of the social hierarchy that included many impoverished people among them. In common usage, the term can also be used for people associated with adhering to low culture, or used to describe a crass, overly casual person who exhibit a lack of grace and refinement. In this sense, individuals do not necessarily need to be criminally destructive or hold ethically questionable views to qualify for the term. Similar terms used for the same type of person include the Australian/New Zealand term ''feral''.

Reputation

Upwardly mobile members of an ethnic group, committed to schooling, education and employment prospects, will often reject low-lives who instead opt (willingly or unwillingly) for street or gang life.

Attraction

The lure of the low-life for those in established social strata has been a perennial feature of western history: it can be traced from the

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...

nian aristocrat described by

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the ''Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...

as only at home in stables and taverns–“you'll find him near a gangster, cheek by jowl, mingling with lascars, thieves and convicts on the run”–through the Elizabethan interest in

cony-catching ''Coney-catching'' is Elizabethan slang for theft through trickery. It comes from the word "coney" (sometimes spelled ''conny''), meaning a rabbit raised for the table and thus tame. A coney-catcher was a thief or con man. It was a practice in me ...

, up to William Burroughs' obsession with the

, bum, or urban outlaw, and through to the anti-heroes of

Cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyber ...

. Such interest may have a sexual component, based on the subconscious equation of socially low status with lack of inhibitions, as with the Roman ladies described by

Petronius Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter"
Pejorative terms for people