What Is Shameless?

The way individuals learn to interact with society as children tends to predict how they will interact with society and respond to its environments as adults. There are social theories that help the understanding of why individuals choose deviant behaviors and how they progress through life. Social process theories view criminal and deviant criminal behaviors as evolving mechanisms learned through societal interaction. Social development theories view deviant and criminal behaviors as part of a maturation process. Social theories are conclusions that have come about based on the response of individuals to

High crime rates are an ongoing issue through the United States, however the motivation and the cause of crime has yet to be entirely identified. Ronald Akers would say that criminality is a behavior that is learned based on what an individual sees and observes others doing. When an individual commits a crime, he or she is acting on impulse based on actions that they have seen others engage in. Initially during childhood, individuals learn actions and behavior by watching and listening to others, and out of impulse they mimic the behavior that is observed. Theorist Ronald Akers extended Sutherland’s differential association theory with a modern viewpoint known as the social learning theory. The social learning theory states that

The stand-alone series “Black Mirror”, features an episode titled Nosedive directed by Joe Wright. In the show, a seemingly ideal woman named Lacie Pound lives in a status-obsessed world, and struggles to express herself. At first, Lacie is described as this merry, popular, and fun person to be around. But then we see that Lacie tries to fit in with everybody else, and struggles with that objective. So she begins to have courage in herself to say and do whatever she wants, even if society disagrees with her defiance. In the end, Lacie is finally able to find her voice and express her individuality, even though ultimately she is put behind bars. Therefore, Joe Wright suggests that even though social hierarchy is valued in society, it does not promote one’s self expression or individuality. In other words, Nosedive displays the negative impact of social standings on people who are not a true fit with what society views as perfect.

Slater starts her essay with a sample self-esteem test. When reading the statements you can relate with all of them, whether it is in a positive or negative way. Slater then states, “If your answers demonstrate solid self-regard, the wisdom of the social sciences predicts that you are well adjusted, clean and sober, basically lucid… If your answers, on the other hand, reveal some inner shame, then it is obvious; you were, or are, a teenage mother; you are prone to social deviance…”(744). Everyone has a different level of self-esteem, which does not define how he or she feels about themselves. Anyone such as a friend or family member can seem to have a high self-esteem and feel bad of the way they live. Self-esteem does not identify what lifestyle you live.

And on the other hand how “Code of the Streets” shows links to the Differential Association and Social Learning theories of crime. The Differential Association (closely related to Social Disorganization theory), developed by Edwin Sutherland, and Social Learning theory, developed by Ronald Akers, both theories of crime are theories that try to explain, at a micro-level, why individuals rather than groups of individuals commit crime (Feldmeyer, Differential Association and Social Learning, 2015).

However, this generation of social disorganization theory did not define what “social disorganization” was, which was nearly unacceptable. Moreover, they only used official data of delinquency in their research, which had obvious middleclass bias, and overlooked social stratification. Besides these, this generation of social disorganization theory could not explain why many people in the Zone II did not commit crime and only a small fraction of whom committed most of the crimes, aka “good boy in the bad neighborhood” problem.

When you associate words like shameless with everyday life you don’t think of it being a television show, one may think of shameless as a negative adjective used to describe a person showing a lack of shame, but it's a comedy/drama television show that really digs deep into real life scenarios and shows how a true dysfunctional family lives in the “hood” of Chicago. Shameless details how much leadership and mental stability Fiona Gallagher has to have in order to run a family of six in her early twenties.

The way an individual is perceived or labeled in the society has a big role in deciding his future. If one knows how to carry oneself in the public, the public would accept one and overlook one’s delinquencies. But this never means that others who are just not as good at hiding their delinquencies are worse. As in the Outsiders, Ponyboy and his mates were socially excluded just like the Roughnecks, yet they were kind enough to risk their own lives to save the life of others. They were considered bullies, however their concern and feelings for humanity is evident from their efforts to save human life. In the materialistic society in which we live, people exclude such individuals from the social circle, whose physical offences are easily noticeable. Thus, their chances of improvement are minimized and their future is usually dark as anticipated.

Sutherland, both a sociologist and professor, developed Differential Association theory in 1939. Sutherland made a realization that crime happens in all social standings, not just the lower class. According to Sutherland, criminal activity is not inherent but learned. For example, children are not born to be racist but learn racism either through a family member or a close group of friends or acquaintances. Although Differential Association theory is a learned behavior, one needs to mentor someone on how to engage in deviant behavior and also how to have the right motivation and attitude to commit illegal corruption. What is the person undertaking the activity going to get out of the deviant behavior money, approval from friends or a better job? Criminals know that committing a crime is wrong, but they somehow have to rationalize to themselves that its alright because of the guilt they feel. Differential Association theory also states that people committing these crimes are doing it because it's more promising to violate the law than not too. Likewise, just because people commit deviant acts doesn’t mean they will continue to engage in those acts later in life according to

Shameless created by Paul Abbott the things we see in the media affect our everyday lives. Gender and intersectionality is a big part of what we see everyday. The media really influences a lot of our everyday behaviors. The show Shameless created by Paul Abbott challenges stereotypes within the characters gender. Each character plays an important part in the show.

Black women deal with challenges every day, whether it’s because of their race, gender, class, education, religious or sexual ties. When it comes to Black women we tend to view their issues as either race or gender related to the exclusion of other aspects of their identity and their intersectionality (Bryant-Davis 114). The show Insecure, an HBO comedy series created by Issa Rae, focuses on the sisterly bond between two young professional black women living in Los Angeles. The show demonstrates the challenges that black women face on a regular basis, whether it’s finding love, navigating a white dominated workplace, battling stereotypes or finding their identity. Although Insecure deals with many important sociological issues, the focus of this paper is the representation of Black women in the workplace, specifically in a white environment and the microaggressions they encounter in their attempt to succeed in their careers.

Black women deal with challenges every day whether it’s because of their race, gender, class, education, religious or sexual ties. When it comes to Black women we tend to view their issues as either race or gender related to the exclusion of other aspects of their identity and their intersectionality (Bryant-Davis 114). The show Insecure, an HBO comedy series created by Issa Rae, focuses on the sisterly bond between two young professional black women living in Los Angeles. The show demonstrates the challenges that black women face on a regular basis, whether it’s finding love, navigating a white dominated workplace, battling stereotypes or finding their identity. Although Insecure deals with many important sociological issues, my focus in this paper is the representation of Black women in the workplace, specifically in a white dominated environment and the microaggressions they encounter in their attempt to succeed in their careers.

I recalled an incident at the 1990 San Diego Padres game when Roseanne Barr sang the national anthem. Many say that it was by far the worst ever sang, it was disrespectful, tactless, and even the president George H. W. Bush said it was “disgraceful”. Even non-sports goers were outraged by the lack of respect. In this instance Roseanne, did “lose face” she suffered a loss of respect and felt humiliated.

In the movie, “The Road from Crime”, Greg was a great example of how Merton 's Anomie and Agnew 's General Strain theory led them through a criminal lifestyle. The environment that Greg lived as a child was a prime example of the Agnew’s General Strain theory. He came from a society where crimes are viewed as a norm in his community. There are different types of circumstance that lead people and groups inside a community to participate in deviant behavior, such as harsh disciplines, child abuse, negative school experience, residence in economically deprived neighborhoods and more. However, Greg was a resident of an economically deprived neighborhood, which had an influence on his criminal background. According to Merton’s Anomie theory, offenders lead a criminal lifestyle because they are not able to accomplish their desire goal. Everyone does not have the same opportunities to become successful. Greg came from a society where people were looked down upon and did not have the opportunity to become successful in life due to their race. Greg was from a community where everyone in his society had an impact on one and other. For instance, he had a friend name Terry who inspired him to be the man he is today. As a kid, Greg looked up to Terry and tried to follow his footsteps. Terry and Greg were neighbors and that is one reason Terry was a role model to Greg. Greg admired Terry because he played basketball and was a “ladies man”. During, Terry and Greg childhood drugs were

The limitation of the differential association theory lay in the question: if deviant behaviour is learned and is indeed "contagious", then why do so many in high crime areas, including criminals own siblings not become criminals? . Sociological conceptions, which regard an individual as a hapless victim of pernicious influences, are limited in providing a critical explanation of deviance, as they ignore the role of personal choice .