Quotes In Tattoos On The Heart

The sad reality is that society does not take a minute to step out of their shoes and try to understand why someone becomes a gang member. Throughout Barking to the Choir, two common themes that arise is the lack of love, and growing up with a rough childhood. For many, survival becomes the priority, especially if they have siblings to look out for. Thus, gang life is not an ideal choice but rather a lucrative option. Through Rational Choice Theory, it is easy to place blame on the gang member, but the reality is that for a plethora of gang members there was no other

In his novel Tattoos on the Heart, author Father Gregory Boyle S.J. shares his experiences as a pastor in the gang capital of the United States, Los Angeles, in an attempt to persuade his readers to look at gang members with a more humane perspective. To help his readers relate to the gang members, Fr. Boyle recounts personal anecdotes about the many gang members he works with and their journeys towards changing their lives. Through his use of colloquial language and informal diction and his narration of personal stories, Fr. Boyle creates an intimate tone accomplishes his purpose of discrediting the stereotypes associated with gangs and depicting a human face worthy of respect and sympathy. Though Boyle published this novel in 2010, his insight and wisdom on the state of gang violence still hold true today, and he continues to inspire his readers to recognize the tragedies many gang members face in their everyday lives.

The documentary Crips and the Bloods: Made in America tells the dramatic story of the perpetual gang violence that runs the streets of Los Angeles, California. Gaining an inside look at how and why this violence is continued, the video focuses on the individuals that are affected by the gangs. Families are torn apart due to endless murders, children are taught to hate and act violently towards their neighbors, and people lose their soul to the gangs that they call their families. Of course every person must make a choice to engage in this sort of life, but sometimes these people are put into situations where there are no other options. In order to further think about what has caused and maintained the violence in the LA area, we can look towards Agnew’s General Strain Theory and the Labeling Theory.

Tattoos on the Heart is a novel by Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program. He invites the reader to gain insight into the need for solidarity in our world. With this quest for solidarity, Gregory Boyle invites the reader to develop compassion, to alter the margins, and to gain understanding of unconditional “no matter whatness,” love.

In Tattoos on the Heart, the reader accompanies Father Gregory Boyle throughout a series of heart-warming conversions he conducts through his interactions with numerous gang members in the Los Angeles projects. Likewise, J.D. Vance in Hillbilly Elegy constructs a memoir of his tumultuous upbringing in the Midwest as well as of his familial roots in Kentucky. A commonality throughout the novels is the poverty faced by members of these communities and how it contributes to the conflicts that drive the plot. The topic of poverty, its causes, and possible solutions has always interested me a lot due to a concept of the Lottery of Birth, which is a philosophical position that comes up frequently in my debate competitions. Basically, where we are born, in terms of one’s position and class in society, is arbitrary; I did not choose to be born in the socioeconomically comfortable neighborhood of Massapequa Park. This is a perpetual unfairness to which there is no solution, but there has to be some action that can alleviate the suffering of the over three billion people worldwide who live on less than three dollars a day (DoSomething.org).

The life-course perspective goes into detail about the onset, persistence, and the desistance process and show that there are connections that are present, and once these connections linger, then the relinquishing of the power that gangs have over people is released. These researchers note that often times juveniles are joining particular gangs, participate, and then leave. So, when studying this process, Pyrooz & colleagues’ (2010) found that by using the conceptual framework that life-course perspective adds, we can better understand the organization and the process of how gangs work over time. This research also provided us with an understanding of the ties that members associate with their respective gangs, and just how hard it is to break those ties and let go of the gang lifestyle through the life-course. In regards to these ties, the researchers concluded that leaving a gang can be tumultuous, it is a time of confusion and possible victimization. Another significant finding was that leaving a gang is not the same process for everyone, there are diverse variables that affect individuals differently. If these variables are not taken into consideration, then the ties to the gang and the desistance process is likely to be less successful (Pyrooz & colleagues,

In “Tattoos on the Heart,” by Gregory Boyle, Boyle experiences how to deal with gangs. The novel, a compelling story about gang violence and one man’s response towards giving those buried within it, tells a story of gang members working for a chance of redemption and solace. Can others be seen as fathers or even as a role models when gang life is such a large force in their lives? Through the story gangbangers that try to change themselves for the pursuit of a better future and a desire to succeed and escape gang life, Boyle tells an emotional, human story about life in the Los Angeles barrios. Boyle characteristics represent him as a father for three gang bangers: Joey Cesar, and Scrappy. While

Alleyne, Emma & Wood, Jane L., (2011). Gang Involvement: Social and Environment Factors. Crime and Delinquency 60 (4) 547-568.

While they might sport the tattoos, the jackets, colors, and signs, often these members are only tangentially affiliated. According to much of the available literature, tattoos also serve as a badge of protection against coercion from other gangs (Jackson and McBride 1985). In the current study, tattoos signify a number of different and personal matters, only one of which gang membership and a warning to others.

The book I read to better understand and gain sympathy for returning citizens is Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (ISBN 978-1439153154) by Father Gregory Boyle, S.J. $14 can afford this 240-page autobiography about a Jesuit priest serving one of the most troubled neighborhoods in the most unique way.

Homeboy Industries provides an approach to gang desistance influenced by ideas of Catholic social justice and therapeutic rehabilitation (Flores, 2016). Each year, over 10,000 former gang members seek their guidance (Homeboy Industries, 2005). By combining counseling, case management, education, vocational training, and job placement, Homeboy Industries helps former gang youth become contributing members in their families, communities, and society (Homeboy Industries, 2005). Homeboy Industries offers employment in their bakeries, cafés, silk-screening and tattoo removal studios, and landscaping and maintenance service divisions (Flores,2016).

Resilience is the power or the ability to return to the original form. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range” (94). Father Gregory Boyle says this because he knows that resilience is needed in order to change. Resilience is important because we can become better people by doing things, we thought we couldn’t do. In the book, Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, Boyle claims resilience is essential in our lives because it is the key to do better.

After reading the first three chapters of Tattoos on the Heart, I was able to relate to Memo at the end of chapter three. Memo discovered the compassion that he has for others after simply hearing about people who live in places where they ought not to live. Though I live a much different life from Memo, I experienced this feeling when I went to Haiti for the first time. I went to Haiti with factual knowledge that Haiti was a country that lived in poverty, and that they could not seem to catch a break from traumatic events occurring in their country. However, I did not realize the extent of their living conditions until I was on the bus, riding to the compound that I would be staying in for the week.

“Sponsorship is mandatory, and only after acceptance may an inmate identify himself with a tattoo or patch” (Ralph, 1997, p.185). Most gangs utilize a “blood in, blood out basis for gang membership: A would-be member must stab a gang’s enemy in order to be admitted, and once in cannot drop out without endangering his own life” (Clear and Cole, 2000, p.260). Besides killing a rival there are other ways to enter the gang and receive acceptance. Those ways include, but are not limited to, assaulting an officer, doing drug deals, or “catching a cell” which means to go into a cell with members of the gang for which the recruit is trying to enter and fighting against them to determine if the prospective member can “hold his own”. These methods of entrance are what contribute to a large majority of the prison violence. The past prison experience relied on “the order and stability provided by the old inmate subculture (which) has been replaced by an atmosphere of conflict and tension, in which inmates align themselves into competing gangs and other inmate organizations” (Bohm and Haley, 1999, p. 351). The gang culture is also based on loyalty and trust of fellow members, such as a “united as one” attitude. This attitude has brought up confidence in offenders, but helped to diminish the effectiveness of the authority of the correctional officers. With the problem of gangs in hand, many states have

The sociological analysis of gang membership explores the different types of effects that arise due to criminal involvement. Because of the social conflicts that are associated with gang membership, this paper will explore the different theories of social learning and both personal and control issues that relate to the recent surge in crime across Chicago. As we open the doors of a crime ridden society, the truth begins to unfold. It isn’t just the thought of helping, it is the action that remains the barrier between living a life of crime or a life that carries hope.