What makes someone a criminal? June from Brotherly Love is a criminal in the laws eyes but not really one in the communities eyes. Brotherly Love is a movie about a star basketball player named sergio and his friends and family. June is the oldest brother of his siblings and he takes care of them. In the laws eyes he is a criminal but in the eyes of the community and to his family he is just someone who is taking care of his family the only way he knows how. June is an outlaw hero for many reasons such as his age, looks, and his lack of care for laws. Brotherly Love is a movie about a the number one ranked basketball player who lives in Philadelphia and attends Overbrook High School along with his sister Jackie. His father died and now …show more content…
So in Junes eyes he has to make quick money and a lot of it. His sister also asks for fifty dollars everyday before school. Even some of the people in the community blame the hood rather than than the gangster or drug dealer. Meaning they say it is because they grew up in the hood that they are selling drugs and acting out instead of blaming the person for doing the crime. For example when June and Sergio went into the barbershop the barber was talking to Sergio and said “I done seen this hood take down the best.” His community does not think of him as a criminal instead they are divided in half. One side thinks that the hood did this to him and the other half thinks that he is just doing this to support his family. Either way his community does not see him as a criminal instead they blame everything else. June himself knows that he is doing illegal things and he does not seem to care. He thinks it is a quick way to get money to support his family. Society on the other hand looks down upon these actions. They think it is not enough of a reason to just say he is doing this because this is what he was raised to see or he is just doing it to support his family. While June and his three friends were hanging out in his room one of his friends started swinging a gun and June said “stop”. His friend then said “you scared to die.’ June replied with “ No I just have responsibilities.” June knows that these illegal actions have consequences but he does not
He doesn’t want to join gangs, he wants to stay and school, and he wants to get out of the ghettos. But after awhile his friends join the gangs and have a bunch of money and his family starts getting bigger and they start getting more
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
The book being reviewed in this papers is Code of the Suburb: Inside the World of Young Middle-Class Drug Dealers by Scott Jacques and Richard Wright. This book is written on the context of 30 different individuals from a small location referenced as “Peachville” in Atlanta Georgia (Jacques & Wright 1). Each of these known individuals during their time in high school were selling drugs. Marijuana was the particular substance to be sold, but few dove into other illicit drugs including ecstasy, cocaine etc. (3). Generally speaking, the first questions that appears is what pushed these students to dive into the prospects of peddling and using drugs? Better yet, why continue to use them? The 7 chapters included in this book contain various stories of popularity and financial gains and losses along with the destruction of relationships.
People that have lived their whole lives in the bad neighborhoods of the lower class, do not know how to provide for the new generation of kids that now will iherts the misfortunes of the adults. In many cases this kids that are force to live in neighborhoods filled with violence and drugs have a hard time developing normal social skill that would help them in the future. When the parents fail in helping the kids get a better future, the only thing a kid can do is look for guidance somewhere else and that is how kids fall into the wrong path in life. Much like Edwin Debrow a 12 year old kid who had to rely on the streets to get some guidance, but now he is in prison paying for the mistake he did. The article “The Prisoner” tells the story of the 12 year old killer who now faces many years in prison. The author if the article uses the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos and logos to make the argument that kids that commit a crime should be helped with the way they are acting and get placed in a better care, then to keep pushing them to fight authority.
Continuing on the next chapter is drugs, violence, and street crime. Now this chapter actually gets into the discussion of how the people become involved with drugs and mainly the selling of them. The main theme is youths and their involvement, most of these youths get involved with the drugs because they are a part of a neighborhood peer group. Most of these peer groups potentially started out as groups of friends, or youth groups and then turned into gangs of some sort. Also it discusses that youths from decent families are very resistant, but the ones who are supposed to be bread winners but have very little
The predominate theory of the social structure perspective that will be applied to Boyz N the Hood is Robert Merton’s Anomie/Strain theory and Robert Agnew’s General Strain theory which closely applies to Merton’s. The strain theory holds that crime is a function of the conflict between goals people have and the means that they can use to obtain them legally. Most people desire wealth, material possessions, power, prestige, and other life comforts. Although these social and economic goals are common to people in all economic standings, strain theorists insist these goals are class dependent. Members of the lower class are unable to achieve these goals of success through conventional or legal means. In return they feel anger, frustration, and resentment, which is referred to as the “strain.” Lower class citizens can either accept their conditions and live out their days being socially responsible or they can choose alternate means of achieving success illegally. These means can include but are not limited to theft, violence, or drug trafficking.
Youth violence is a problem among young teens because it causes a division, which unfortunately result into gangs. Moreover in the past, gang violence results into youth crimes such as robbery, and drug sales. In this new generation, the youth resort in selling marijuana and heroin, even more than crack cocaine now, this means where the drugs are is where the gangs are, also the weapons to protect to their territory. While writing his article Michael Blanding quotes a young man of 16 years of old named Sharodeny Finch, who said, “People get tired of wearing the same damn jeans”. This young man was referring to the fact that he gets tired of the gangs, and tries to do the right thing by finding an actual job. But when he got turned down his response was, “ You try to do the right thing, find a job to earn money, and you can't. You got a block right here, you know what I'm saying?” Basically Finch is explaining that, sometimes young people will try to escape the gang life, but when they try and do not get what they intended for, they go back to the gangs. This overall shows in order for the youth not to resort back to the gangs, they have to be dealt with in the proper format. Gang violence does not have broaders, however in the urban areas of Boston it tends to receive the most attention. This problem causes emotional stress, group tensions in communities, and many other troubles. This issue tends to thrive in communities that already have drug addictions, and low property rates.Moreover, gang violence influences these other issues to worsen over time. Therefore, youth violence should be a priority to resolve for it causes and affects many other issues in Boston.
Crime is one of those things like you said is an ever changing definition. As our culture and opinions change we see what is considered to be a criminal act and what is not. An example is marijuana, we can see how the opinion is starting to change while it is still restricted there has been a topic for debate. The media is quick to manipulate statistics and brainwash people into believing what is aired to be true. Especially crimes that are rare and not likely to happen to you.
The concept of career criminals varies depending on your interpretation. The United States Sentencing Commission defines a career criminal as
One of the main economic problems that many people, particularly gangs, in Robert Taylor faced was the fact that they didn’t want to trade in their status for entry-level jobs because in many cases, gang leaders made far more than they would have if they worked minimum wage jobs (72). Many of the gang leaders such as J.T. held the false belief that the drug economy was “useful for the community, since it redistributed the drug addict’s money back into the community via the gang’s philanthropy” (115). However, the drug economy is not a stable or lucrative economy compared to your average jobs because it was clearly very hard for people to get ahead in gangs, thus no one ever had a fair shot of earning more money in their life span. Nevertheless, the situation can tend to be a grey area of debate since a lot of the residents did attempt to hold blue-collar jobs but continued to get laid off (60). In this case, the underground economy of drug sales may have been the only choice for residents looking for an income. Another way the gangs play into the economic situation is when there are drive by shootings, in which case parents
The question, why do people become criminals raise a lot of views when it comes down to personal, social and environmental factors. While many think that people become criminals due to the environment and people they have grown up around, other’s think it is due to mental illness or just out of pure enjoyment. The following report will discuss how a person’s environment can impact them to become vicious killers, particularly discussing the Ivan Milat, a serial killer based in Australia, known for the case of the “Backpacker murders”.
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.
World War II was fought between two main opposing forces, the Allies and the Axis forces. The Axis powers consisted of Germany, Italy, and Japan being the most dominant. On the other hand, some of the countries in the Allied powers were Great Britain, the United States, France, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Soviet Union, Canada, and Greece.
Many times individuals turn to a gang to escape a life of poverty or financial uncertainty. A sense of hopelessness and desperation can result from being unable to provide the basic necessities. “Young people living in poverty may find it difficult to meet basic physical and psychological needs, which can lead to a lack of self-worth and pride” (Lee, Dean, and Parker 1). Individuals who are faced with a lack of money many times turn to crime if they cannot earn enough at a legitimate job to support themselves or their families. “This partly explains why gangs exist in poor, rundown areas of cities” (Grabianowski 1).
There are many perceptions of what defines crime. The definitions appear to change throughout history and are still changing today (Henry, S. and Lanier, M. M., 2001 ,p.139). For example, in the past marital rape was not considered a crime as it was thought that women were believed to be “sexual property” of the male and, therefore it couldn’t be classed as rape (Brownmiller, 1975, cited by Bergen, R.K., 1996, p.3). However, in the United States in 1978 a man was convicted of rape on his wife (Russell, 1990, cited by Bergen, R.K., 1996, p.4). This shows how it is hard to define crime due to the changes in views over time. Different cultures also have different perceptions of what is, or is not considered to be a crime. For example,