Neighborhoods And Violent Crime By Robert Gelson Summary

As define in “Criminology,” criminogenic environments are communities generally higher in neighborhoods with lower levels of social integration (71). Structural factors that include: age, gender and race are mostly related in communities where socio economic and class status are affected by. Low income neighborhoods contribute to individuals to be involve in crime. As described on our book scholars say that “kinds of places matter more than kinds of people” (134). This view refers to that the people do not cause crime but rather the place where individuals reside is the one causing the crime. The living situation in urban neighborhoods is a common association between teenagers and other adults to be exposed to crime. Some individuals who are not criminals and that are connected to this environment may be equally exposed to criminal behavior. The result to this is that in many urban areas, individuals are exposed to crime and criminal behavior in this communities.

Violent crimes happen every day in America, yet the full scope of why and how they happen are not understood by many outside of law enforcement. But within the ranks of law enforcement and the criminal justice system itself, violent crimes are examined and analyzed at length to determine both how and why the incident occurred, as well as what can be done in the future to prevent a similar event from reoccurring. Investigators use multiple methods and seek various explanations as to why a violent crime occurs. This literature will look at some of those things that investigators try to sort out in the aftermath of a violent crime, such as the killer’s modus operandi and signatures, his psychology, relation to his victims, and how the effect of gender, race, or culture might impact his violent behavior.

Crime has always been a hot topic in sociology. There are many different reasons for people to commit criminal acts. There is no way to pinpoint the source of crime. I am going to show the relationship between race and crime. More specifically, I will be discussing the higher chances of minorities being involved in the criminal justice system than the majority population, discrimination, racial profiling and the environment criminals live in.

In There Are No Children Here, Kotlowitz describes the experiences of Pharoah and Lafayette to highlight the racist and classist undertones existing within the criminal justice system of Chicago in the late 1980s. This essay will utilize the theory of critical criminology to illustrate the structures of inequality within the criminal justice system and the subsequent marginalization of youth that exists within the Henry Horner community, leading to youth deviance and violent crime. Beginning with a brief outline of the major characteristics of critical theory, the essay will then address the increasing focus on gang involvement as an explanation for inner-city youth crime, using examples from the Disciples and Vice Lord gangs, and how that focus demonstrates the bias and inequality within the criminal justice system. Next, the necessity of the Henry Horner community creating a system of “self-help” will be analyzed, a result of the perceived inadequacy of the criminal justice system in addressing the problems that the community faces. The theory of critical criminology demonstrates how structures of inequality are represented in the criminal justice system: the incessant focus on gangs and inadequacy of the system to provide protection causes the marginalization of youth like Pharoah and Lafayette, reinforcing instances of youth deviance and crime.

There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, tells a story about the family of LaJoe and Paul Rivers. The book focuses on Lafayette and Pharaoh, two of the younger children in the family, and their interactions with each other, the neighborhood, their family, their friends, and the police. Following the family over three years shows the importance of neighborhood factors when it comes to crime. According to Sampson and Groves (1989), social disorganization refers to “the inability of a community structure to realize the common values of its residents and maintain effective social controls”. Many aspects in the book exemplify how neighborhood factors, social controls, and community factors have impacts on crime. The book exemplifies how neighborhood disadvantage can lead to informal social controls, which in turn produces crime. Due to these factors, social disorganization is the best theory to explain the crime that occurs in There are No Children Here.

I’ve lived in South Ozone Park, Queens for three years and throughout those three years my family and I have overall good remarks. South Ozone Park used to be a predominant Italian neighborhood, but over the years a lot of Guyanese individuals have occupied residency here, so that’s mainly the type of people you see in this neighborhood. There are of course plenty of people from other backgrounds; the whole area of South Ozone Park is pretty diverse. Italians still live here, and so do some Hispanics like Dominicans and Cubans from what I’ve seen on my block, but there are surely others. In my block everyone gets along because we all know each other well. Most of the residents on my block (there are

The Bond connects to a lot of information from our textbook and class discussions. To begin with, article 28 in our textbook titled Violence and the Inner-City Code relates to this book. For instance, the article talks about how by simply living in such an environment such as the inner city; young people are put at special risk of falling victim to aggressive behavior. This was shown in the section of The Bond written by Sampson. He tells a story that between the summer of his junior and senior years of high school him and his friends got the idea of robbing drug dealers to make some quick money. In order to do this, they preyed on young drug salesmen, pulling a gun on them, taking their money, and driving off. The plan worked for a little while, but then fell through. While they were robbing someone, two policemen walked up. Sampson pretended to by a bystander while his friends tried to outrun the police. They failed, and ended up being detained. Sampson ran home and told his older sister everything, which then made him call the cops the next day. Soon enough, Sampson ended up serving four weeks at the Essex County youth house (106-107). Just because Sampson lived where he did, he got drawn into aggressive behavior and ended up paying for it. The article in the textbook also states that there are often forces that can counteract the negative influences- by far the most powerful is a strong, loving, “decent” family committed to middle-class values. This was

Researchers at one point or another presume the idea that having low income is a contributing factor to committing crimes. It is either based on experience or our surroundings that we challenge this idea. It based on information by

Walker, S., Spohn, C., Delone, Miriam. (2004). The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America (3rded.). Toronto, Ontario: Thomas Learning Inc.

African Americans have been associated with crime for many years, and because of that, the stigma follows them everywhere. There are plenty of neighborhoods with a lot of African Americans that have high crime rates, but these neighborhoods also have “pronounced levels of socioeconomic disadvantages”(Laurence 1). It is argued that African American neighborhoods have the “highest average levels of disadvantaged social conditions owing to the role of race in structuring opportunity and community access"(Krivo and Peterson qtd. in Laurence). Some researchers focus on this point, while others find that although these neighborhoods are more disadvantaged, there may be other reasons for high crime rate in the

Accordingly, general consensus portrays inner cities (i.e. generally poor black neighborhoods), as the apparatus of crime. In this view, crime emanates from the poor, and so generates an environment “credible fear” that intensifies racism and frantic search for solutions in the form of draconian laws (e.g., “zero tolerance,” & “War on Drugs” policies) that target the underclass and serve to advance formal social control via prisons. Destitute minorities, disproportionately black and Latino, therefore, are convicted and

The purpose of this paper is to first define intersectionality and how it is linked to issues such as class, race, gender and crime. Secondly, it will discuss why intersectionality is important to understand crime and justice. In order to understand the relationship between intersectionality and crime, a particular issue will be reviewed from the crime and delinquency issues of 2014. Out of the 52 articles, this paper will first look at the number of titles and abstracts that discuses race, class, gender or other social inequalities. Lastly, out of the 52 articles reviewed, five will be thoroughly examined and discussed that best address intersectionality and how these issues are link together.

contributor to crime in the United States is a young, black male living in an

Although it seems like crime is unpredictable and that a community has no way of stopping a crime lifestyle once it begins its course, criminologists have theorized that neighborhoods can maintain well established community goals and social controls. “Social control refers generally to the capacity of a group to regulate its members according to desired principles-to realize collective, as opposed to forced, goals” (17). In these communities, people trust each other and help each other with community projects. People are committed to build a better environment for them and their children. Active parenting and child supervision takes place to ensure that positive social norms are being taught. In the absence of these neighborhoods and communities

This book attempts to conduct research in order to extend the field of criminology, not any other matter. Sutherland was attempting to bring attention to an area of criminal behaviour that criminologists had not previously studied. At this time, theories of criminal behaviour placed a large emphasis on poverty being the cause of crime or on other social conditions and personal traits which