The Gang That The Author, Sudhir Venkantesh

In the book, Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociology student from the University of Chicago starts out simply trying to understand “how it feels to be poor and black,” and ends up spending years and years figuring out the ins and outs of a gang society (Venkatesh 14). Sudhir receives the chance of a sociologist’s lifetime to see first-hand what life is like in the projects. He follows gang leader, J.T. around and studies his life at the Robert Taylor homes for years. Throughout Venkatesh’s experience he witnesses many things some people go a lifetime without seeing. For example, he was no stranger to seeing people use drugs or get beat up by gang members. One interesting aspect of Venkatesh’s experiment

In chapter 5 in the novel Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh he writes about his experience of how he began to tag along with Ms. Bailey more often. Venkatesh says the more time he would spend with her, the more he would understand her work ethics and why she is so important to the community. Since Venkatesh was spending more time with Ms. Bailey he began to help her with food drives and food donations in the community as well as go to meetings that she would run. Venkatesh says the reason that Ms. Bailey was helping the housing projects, community and their building was because it was low on clothing and food for the winter. This portion of the novel teaches us about how many people out there have needs and the altruism in the way some

Gang involvement and its associated violent crime have become a rapidly growing problem for the United States. Generally, gangs consist of young people of the same ethnic, racial, and economic background. Usually of a low socio-economic status, these gangs engage in illegal money making activities and intimidate their neighborhoods and rival gangs with violent crimes and victimization. Gang members exemplify a high value for group loyalty and sacrifice.

This book was different than other literature that had been produced, because Duran was able to get closer and inspect the deeper characteristics of gang life and gang members themselves. This is something that other researchers in the field are typically not able to accomplish. He took on the perspective of investigating what role racial oppression had with the development of gangs. His perspective and his ex-gang membership background allowed him to be more trusted by all the gang members that he interviewed for this research.

Even though gangs provide a sense of support, the "values" instilled in members are horribly dangerous to society. Murders and drive-by shottings go unpunished more often than not in areas like the Henry Horner Homes. Gangs have become powerful enough that high-ranking members who are forced to face the law are protected by high-priced attorneys and investigators (163).

This is where some of the more implicit differences between the Black Kings and the Bling Ring are visible. J.T.’s gang in Chicago believed in what they did was not wrong. They broke the law in order to keep the “underground economy” that supported the poor community going. Ms. Mae, J.T’s mother explained to Venkatesh about the importance of the community to everyone who is a part of it (including the gang members). She said, “We live in a community, understand? Not the projects—I hate that word. We live in a community. We need a helping hand now and then, but who doesn’t? Everyone in this building helps as much as they can. We share our food, just like I’m doing with you. My son says you’re writing about his life—well, you may want to

In chapter 2 of Sudhir Venkatesh’s Gang Leader for a Day, Venkatesh spends time with a Chicago drug kingpin nick named J.T. During his time spent with this kingpin, Venkatesh explores the troubled projects of Chicago such as the Robert Taylor complex and begins to learn the inner operations of the kingpins business. He learned that J.T ran the central operations of these miniature complexes and ran his illicit business like a legitimate corporation with an established hierarchy. He also learned that these apartment complexes were often united through the community being so knit close together, with all of them being understandable towards J.T illicit operations and each other’s vices. This can be noted through the estimation that “15 percent

Decision making is to do something, to be something, to behave a certain way and a judgment about someone or something. Meaning making is the process in which we make these decisions. Such as, what have our life experiences been; where have we come from. Throughout Sudhir Venkatesh, “Gang Leader for a Day”, he shows how different people have made decisions. People like the police, the gang members, parents with young children, Ms. Bailey, JT, and even Sudhir himself. People often told Sudhir how much he had to learn or often thought of him as naive for not realizing what was going on or how his actions had affected people.

An example of a group that could be considered deviant is underage drinking which also shows an example a deviant group through the nature of illegal activities. My position on underage drinking is considered a negative label by society norms and the law. By consuming alcohol beverages various individual’s may feel complete, in the sense that belong in a subgroup that have the same believe that it’s okay to drink while being underage. Individual’s that feel out casted in our society try to fit into any subculture even if they have to commit illegal act. Many people are labeled in a society if they stand out in a society such as an outcast of that social norm.

Deviance is a violation of a social norm in a society. In the sociological perspective, it is not one’s individual characteristics that lead to deviant behavior but rather the social interactions, structures, and processes that lead to one’s deviant behavior. In turn, deviance is socially constructed by a society or group itself. A group dictates what is the norm in their community and what is abnormal, or deviant, in their eyes. Deviance is functional in a society.

Deviance is a social event by practice and creation. Society determines what behaviors are deviant and what behaviors are in the norm. When a person or group operates outside of what behaviors are considered acceptable in society they are labeled as deviant. Cult groups are a prime example of people that exist in the fissures of society. Where most people see obscene acts and beliefs in cult life, a select few may see truth or even prophecy. In many cases this amounts to nothing, but in some, cult fanaticism is exceptionally dangerous. Look no further than the Manson family to observe where deviant behavior can cross fatal lines.

“...social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction creates deviance, and by applying those roles to particular people and labeling them as outsiders. From this point of view, deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by other of rules and sanctions to an 'offender. ' The deviant is one to whom that label has been successfully applied; deviant behavior is behavior that people so label"

Next, is the ritualists, who build their cultural goal of wealth through the success of their children. In my opinion ritualist group are those people who expect to live off the mean of their children wealth when they are drafted by NFL league or some other high profile professional. Lastly, the retreatists group, in which they live the life as a criminal. Finally, rebellion when that individual refuses cultural goal of wealth and institutional mean(Bohm & Vogel, 2011). In 1950 Albert K. Cohen used Merton's anomie theory in regards to gang delinquency. Cohen suggested that gangs member did not have an interest in long-run goals or the intolerance restraint unless it was from their gang members. In their quest for their behavior, the hope to gain recognition from their peers or the status of frustration.(Bohm & Vogel, 2011). For example, in order to become part of the gang membership, an individual would have to fight a group of boys or kill someone. On the other hand, the juvenile who were unable to attain the support by family name, being well known in their community, or their academic /athletic

The crime deviant behavior that violates prevailing norms cultural standards prescribing how human ought to behave normally. As we look at it everyone has values and cultures or upbringings cause a to have a very wide range of what we wall consider the deviant and completely normal or satisfactory.

Genuine gangs exist for a criminal purpose outside of merely consuming certain legal or illegal substances. Particularly in the context of criminal justice education, all other definitions of gangs serve no purpose other than to cloud the issue, and this is an issue where clarity is needed. An individual might say that he “and the gang” were getting together, but this has no bearing on the commonly understood usage of the term, and the one that is most worthwhile to consider in the criminal justice context. The definition of gang that should be used to properly compare such groups to fraternities is that found in the Virginia Code. The code states that a criminal street gang has as one of its primary objectives the commission of crimes (Downes, 2014). Secondly, the group must use identifiable names or symbols, and finally, its members must have engaged in two or more predicated criminal acts, including violence.