Sociology Paper on the Move the Departed

Sullivan eventually finds out that Costello is an FBI informant. He has actually been snitching on people to the FBI and has gathered evidence against Sullivan. With that being said, Sullivan is pushed over the edge and betrays Costello by killing him during a drug sting. Costigan later goes back to the police department to get his life back when he finds evidence that Sullivan is the informant Costello sent into the police force. He comes into the possession of tapes to prove Sullivan guilty (given to him by Costello), and in an attempt to blackmail him, he ends up getting killed by another dirty cop.

Sociology is the “Systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior” (Ferris and Stein, 2016, p. 9). The study of a single society and its behaviors can have contrast due to a 20th century event. In the essay, Racism and Research: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, an unethical experiment took place in the year 1932 in Macon County, Alabama. This case can discuss the topics of culture, socialization, deviance, and race. All of which can become visible in a society through the structural functionalism theory. George Herbert Mead derives this perspective as “A way of looking at the world” through a specific lens (Ferris and Stein, 2016, p. 10).

The focus and objective of sociology is to examine social patterns. Examining social patterns reveal the sources of pressures and constraints that affect individuals’ thoughts and behaviors. There are three types of social patterns which are culture, social institutions and social structure. Culture is the shared symbols, ideas, beliefs, values, customs and material products by people in a particular society. These shared factors are accumulated through the passage of time. Social Institutions are structures and or mechanisms that provide a set of ideas and or rules that governs how individuals are to act in order to achieve important goals to which that society recognizes. Social structure is the statuses and or pattern of social relationships that have an effect of shaping individuals’ interactions with one another and how various distributions are determined. Hierarchy is one type of social structure.

In the movie “Breakfast Club” five high school students are punished with an 8 hour Saturday detention. In the beginning, they introduce each of the characters as the criminal, the athlete, the princess, the brain, and the basket case. All five students are from different groups of social status and think they all have nothing in common, but soon realize they have more things in common than expected. This movie can be seen through Structure-Functionalism, one out of three core theories. Structural functionalism view society as a system of co-dependent part that work together to ensure survival, meaning each structure has a certain function or purpose to be in society.

In the film Erin Brockovich, several different social theories can be related to the storyline of the film. Although different, theories from Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber can all adequately describe what happens in the film. The film is about a small law firm that takes on an extremely powerful organization, PG & E (Pacific Gas & Electric), on the account that they were knowingly polluting Hinkley, California’s water supply and harming the citizens. From Karl Marx, the film can be explained through his base-superstructure model of society, with PG & E serving as the powerful base, and the rest of society in Hinkley, CA serving as the superstructure. From Emile Durkheim, this movie can be portrayed through his

Meanwhile, Sullivan is assigned to uncover the mole in SIU (himself). This makes for some tension between Sullivan and Dignam, whose suspicion of Sullivan rises. Above suspicion, Sullivan focuses instead on finding the police snitch in Costello's crew. Sullivan orders the SIU to trail Queenan and eventually follows him to a meeting with Costigan on the rooftop of a run-down building on the harbor. Having become insomniac, dependent on Valium and suffering from panic attacks, Costigan explains he wants out, to which Queenan assures him that while it cannot be done overnight, he will get him out of it. Sullivan tells Costello's men that the snitch is most likely at the building. As the men approach, Costigan flees, but Queenan stays behind, is confronted by them and was thrown off the building. In the ensuing gunfire, between Costello's men and the police, the officer who tailed Queenan is wounded and Delahunt, one of Costello's men is critically wounded. Later on, when the men return to their hideout, Timothy Delahunt (reported later by the local media

Fabricating an identity is a task that all humans encounter, which requires a significant amount of time. Because it takes a while to establish, numerous factors, such as the environment and the group dynamic an individual is surrounded by, can effect the creation of the identity. In Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime,” he explains human behavior in his analysis when presenting a theory to explain the time period when New York City was crime ridden. Gladwell argues that the physical environment of an individual plays a significant role in an individual’s behaviors and actions, which shape an individual’s identity. While Gladwell argues that an individual’s identity is a product of his or her surroundings and environment, Susan Faludi explains how choosing to take part in a group dynamic can significantly alter one’s identity in her “The Naked Citadel.” Faludi describes how the cadets come to The Citadel so they can escape the traditional roles of masculinity in the outside world, and arrive at a place where they are sometimes given the opportunity to live a vulnerable lifestyle. However, when the cadets arrive they are integrated into a group dynamic, which alters their own personal identities. The effects of the environment and group dynamic on one’s identity is portrayed in Azar Nafisi’s “Selections From Reading Lolita in Tehran.” Nafisi describes the time frame when her students secretly came to her

Social structures are constraints that affect the lives of both the affluent and the indigent members of society.  Each society has its own set of social arrangements for example; class, gender and ethnicity are all constraints that each society has to deal with in one way or another.  One of the most fundamental of the social structures would be class.  Class structure is found in all societies and is the key source of economical inequality.  Members of different class groups start their lives with unequal opportunities.  This means that when someone is born into a poor household   they will undoubtedly remain in the same economical situation they began in.  Gender is another important

The social structure of a society refers to the dispersal of opportunities for attaining success goals through socially adequate means. In the United States, these opportunities are not evenly distributed.

Sullivan is feeling the organizational pressures of being both an inside man for Costello and playing an active role as a police officer. Sullivan could stand up to Costello at this point. Given Costello’s tendency for violence, Sullivan faces aggressive retaliation from Costello and possible a long torturous death. It is understandable why Sullivan is motivated to continue down the path of corruption, given those options.

The social structure theory deliberates delinquency as a gathering of the person’s dealings with numerous groups, organizations, and process in the society. Any person irrespective of their prominence in life is likely to become delinquents if they continue with negative social affiliations. Every aspect of the society, social and economic must be viewed using the social structure theories to find the cause of crime and deviance. The social structure theories consist of four types which include social disorganization theory, anomie theory, differential association theory, and labeling theory. Several theories offer different answers to this delinquent of influential the key features of a social group.

Another aspect of constructing identity can be applied to the concept of deviance, symbolic interactionist refer to deviance using the labeling theory, which refers to the meanings that stem from labels, symbols, actions, and reactions that people have toward one another. This theory states that behaviors are only deviant if and when society labels them as deviant. This being the case, members of society that have conformed to what is considered non-deviant behavior, (normal behavior) then interpret behaviors that go against social norms as deviant and as such, attach the label of deviant onto those individuals (Hewitt, 2007). The concept of deviance fits right into the SCT because the individuals that are labeled deviant have in some way shape or form constructed the deviant identity that warrants such a label.

Can identity be a sharp weapon to overcome restrictions and oppression. Jose Munoz, a former perfomance studies professor at NYU argued in his article "The White to Be Angry" that identity is manipulative. According to Munoz, the manipulation of identity is called disidenticaction. Instead of rejecting society or a group whole sale, someone who disidentifies accepts some aspects of that society or group without assimilating to the dominant ideals. People, especially in minority groups, developed disdentifciation as an offensive mechanism because it allowed them to function within that group or society without becoming trapped. Munoz's theory provides a powerful analytical lens which I will use to evaluate the characters Corliss and Harlan

Social theory is the central idea that entitles not only all societies but the limited as well. Social theory helps us understand certain ideas better. It helps us to critically analyze a certain topic, that being a certain religion or even a certain economic status. We can ask questions such as, what factors helped that individual or group of people get to that certain economic status or what about that certain religion helped set the fundamentals or certain morals a person adopts into their life or lives. Now, to better use social theory and to break it down there is three themes.

A society 's social structure refers to its basic social organization. Two dimensions stand out when explaining differences between cultures. The first is the degree to which the basic unit of social organization is the individual, as opposed to