Kody Scott, later known as Shanyika Shakur, was born in Los Angeles in 1963. Before last imprisonment he committed various crimes, such as, robbery, assault, and murder. Kody’s childhood was pretty rough. He grew up as the fifth of six children in a broken home. His mother, Birdy Scott, worked odd jobs and long hours to support her children. While his father, Ernest Scott, left the family in 1970 and was completely out of Kody’s life by 1975. Shortly after completing sixth grade at Horace Mann, Kody joined a subgroup of the infamous L.A. Crips on June 15th, 1975. Kody committed his first murder on the night of his initiation. This would be the start of Kody’s descent into becoming “Monster Kody”. It was two years after his initiation that Kody first donned the name Monster. Scott had beaten a robbery victim so bad that the police said it was “The work of a …show more content…
Rational Choice Theorists believe that human beings are logical at nature and rationally make every choice. They believe that before a person commits a crime to weigh the pros and cons of the crime. Humans free willed creature that are hedonistic and will do things to increase pleasure but decrease pain.This theory doesn’t work for Kody Scott because even when Kody was shot multiple times, which could have killed him, he continued to do gang activities. When Kody was at the point of getting his third strike and facing life in prison he yet again didn’t stop his activities. If Rational Choice Theory explained Kody Scott’s criminal behavior then he would have stopped at one of those events. Risking his life might not have been too much of a big deal for him since he gets shot at all the time but risking life in prison would have stopped all of his pleasures. Rationally he wouldn’t have risked getting a third strike yet he did so this theory just doesn’t fit the
When Kody Scott was 6 years old, the gang wars started in Los Angeles. It started out as a battle between the Crips and the Bloods, but by the late 70's and continuing today, the biggest killer of Crips is other Crips. The Crip Nation was divided into different divisions, which Monster compares to the U.S. Army. "For instance, one who is in the army may belong to the F...
Kody Scott first became involved with the Crips at the age of eleven (Shakur Preface xiii). From the beginning of his time in the Crips, Scott seemed to naturally fit into the life of a gang member. He quickly gained notoriety for his numerous acts of violence and he was given the nickname "Monster" as a result of a vicious beating he gave a man that left him permanently disfigured and in a coma (Shakur 13). Scott became very well known around the community and was feared by rival gangs, as he quickly rose to the top of his own gang. Throughout his early teenage years, Scott was in and out of juvenile halls and youth camps as a result of his violent behavior. As a result of his affiliation with the Crips and his actions as a member, his relationship with his mother became very poor (Shakur 25). He became so notorious that one night he was attacked and shot seven times (Shakur 92). After this he became even more famous in the gang world and he was quickly becoming the most respected member of the Crips. Shortly after being released from the hospital after his shooting, Kody Scott was arrested for murder and was sent to juvenile hall (Shakur 124).
Kershaun, Kody’s younger brother, joined while Kody was serving time in prison. Although he was not the one to initiate Kershaun, it could be suggested that Kody provided an image for his brother that appealed to him. Many juveniles join gangs because they see the rewards their older siblings are receiving, because they too are in gangs (Lilly et al., 2015). Other juveniles join because their friends have joined, to fit in, or because they need some type of security and stability. A gang provides both of those things, but only for members of their set. A gang is similar to a family, the original gangsters (OG’s) such as Kody could show new members the ways of the streets. There are traditions, rules, and expectancy for each gang. Those in their set should always have one another’s back. If a Blood shot and killed one of the Eight Tray Gangsters, several members of the Eight Tray Gangsters would find that Blood, or someone important to that Blood, and get retribution for their deceased member. This creates a distorted sense of security and stability. However, it also creates a new generation of delinquents. From the gang perspective, if their new recruits were correctly taught the criminal values of the gang, they will be able to defend the streets while other members of the gang are incarcerated. The youth living in this environment, or zone in transition were much more susceptible to join gangs and engage in criminal behavior. Criminal acts and deviance is considered a social norm in this area. Kody’s mother was dumbfounded by how her children got tied up in gangs. She questioned Kody once by saying, “I wonder if that’s how I lost you and Shaun to the streets. You guys have turned from my darling little ones into savage little animals and I just don’t know what to do no more, I really don’t (Shakur, 1993, p 332).” However, Kody knew it was not her fault or their absent
The main character in the book Monster, Kody Scott talks about two large gangs. He talks about when he was initiated into the Crips at age eleven and he committed his first murder. This is the first day he realized he would be “banging” for the rest of his life. He had worked hard to build up his reputation and the Crips gang, by being loyal to his homeboys. It was evident that he had the potential to become a leader. The name Monster stuck with him during a police encounter when he had been called that. Monster had been a legacy, he was not only known by his own gang but others as well. Kody's early child hood and teenage years, both proceeding and during his life as a Crip, fit quite well with several theories that were discussed in our textbook.
Richard Kuklinski, aka “The Iceman” was born in the projects of Jersey City on April 11, 1935 to Stanley and Anna Kuklinski, of Polish and Irish descent. He picked up his nickname because he sometimes froze his victim’s bodies (Martin 2006). It is said that Kuklinski did this so the coroner would not be able to identify the time of death. Kuklinski died on March 5, 2006 at Trenton State Prison in New Jersey of an undisclosed nature (Martin 2006). He was arrested before Christmas on December 17, 1986 and subsequently confessed to killing between 200 and 250 men spanning a forty-three career, most of which he spent working with various east coast Mafia crime families (Carlo 2003). He was sentenced to two life terms in 1988 plus an additional 30 years in 2003 for the killing of New York City police detective Peter Calabro (Carlo 2003).
He was an introvert and kept himself withdrawn from others. His classmates that he had would call him “oddie” because of the inwardness that he exhibited at school. “He was never a good student failing both behaviorally and academically during his short time at school. He would often miss classes, and when he was there, he regularly misbehaved and had the reputation of being a bully and picking fights with other students. Shawcross dropped out of school after failing to pass the ninth grade. He was 16 years old. Over the next few years, his violent behavior intensified, and he was suspected of arson and burglary. He was placed on probation in 1963 for breaking the window of a store” (Montaldo,2017). I believe the bullying and dropping out of school after the ninth grade are contributing factors on him being a violent
In a few years, Lansky became a "shtarke," or a person who will commit violence for a price. It is with this job that Lansky's name first shows up on the criminal record books. At sixteen he was charged with felonious assault, but the charges were dismissed. Later he was arrested for attempting to be a pimp. He pleaded guilty to this and was fined two dollars.
One night in Las Vegas in 1996, Tupac was in town for a Mike Tyson fight. After the fight, he and his friends beat up a Crip by the name of Orlando Anderson in a hotel lobby. Anderson had recently taken part in assault up one of Tupac's bodyguards. After the beating Anderson and his Crip friends quickly planned to get revenge on Shakur. This is where everything began to get interesting.
One element that the rational-choice perspective and the routine-activity approach have in common is the consideration of target vulnerability. The rational-choice perspective assumes that an offender thinks about a variety of factors such as how vulnerable is the target, before committing the crime. According to the routine-activity approach that for a crime to occur there has to be a suitable target.
The perpetrator makes the decision in committing a certain even though it can cause serious harm towards the other person. Rational choice theory holds that the choices of a person makes tend to maximize total convenience, where convenience is synonymous with the modern concept to reinforcement in behavioral psychology. Since utility (or reinforcement) cannot be directly observed, it must be inferred from behavior, namely, from those choices themselves (Hernstein, 1990). The justification of the perpetrator making this choice is by weighing the cost and benefits of that behavior without really having a long term plan on how it will be conducted. Since the person is tending to maximize total convenience, the person is seeking for an immediate reward and in this case it would be the gratification of dominating the victim and receiving what the perpetrator wanted without considering of the consequences of the crime nor what this will do to the
In Billy Swartz’s “The paradox of choice”, he reveals the idea that more choice can lead to lower personal satisfaction. First he explains the official dogma, which states that the maximization of individual freedom maximizes the welfare of citizens. In order to maximize freedom, one must maximize choice; thus the more choice one has, the more welfare one has. However, the notion aforementioned is problematic. With more choices, life has become a matter of choice. For example, patient autonomy, is the transfer of the burden and accountability for decision making from someone who knows something to someone who knows nothing. This is present in clinics across the United States, where doctors give their patients choices as to which medical procedure they will undergo; however, their
Rational choice theory is about making decisions and weighing the costs and benefits of the decision that was made. In this article, two jewelry dealers did not think that the crime that they were committing, they would get caught and charged for their crime. Two owners of a jewelry shop owed a lot of money to the government had created a plot in order to defraud the insurance company and escape financial problems (Moynihan, 2011). Mahaveer Kankariya and Atul Shah, the owners of the jewelry shop went inside their own dealer, armed with pistols and dressed as Hasidic Jews and were demanding money. They sabotaged the security system, tied up two people, and left with millions of dollars. Later on the jewels and the money that were taken and the suspects were never found. Both of these men were accused of a fake robbery that had taken place, they thought they would get away with it but evidence have proven otherwise (Moynihan,
Rational choice theory is the basis of almost all decisions one makes in their life. Starting at a young age kids make choices based off of self-interest, whether it be taking a toy another kid is playing with or asking the other parent for something when the first already said no hoping for an answer they want. Rational choice theory is based on intentional, goal oriented behavior (“Rational Choice Theory” 74). Before making decisions, people consciously and unconsciously weigh the pros and cons of each choice usually opting for the choice that benefits them the most or has the most desired predicted outcome. So why do people commit crimes even though they know they could get into a lot of trouble could go to jail? People enter an interaction
Personal choice to commit a crime shows the person’s ability to rationalize; indicating they are knowledgeable that the act is illegal, and those consequences can ensue, According to (e.g.. TRAVIS HIRSCHI, 1986) he stated that, because rational choice theory assumed that people are free to choose their course of action, people consider first their own profit or pleasure, which is a personal choice to commit a crime. An example could be a mother of an infant who is in desperate need of milk for her new born. She decides to steal formula from the supermarket for her new born. Because of her personal choice, she decided that committing a crime was a better option than her infant going hungry despite the consequence of theft.
In criminology it is taught that people commit acts of deviance or crime based are various personal circumstances. The social class that you are raised in can affect choices you make in life like whether to obey or disobey rules and laws that govern society. There are theories that cover the gambit of the why people commit acts of assault, rape and murder. This paper will discuss how Classical and Rational Choice Theories can help to understand the actions of the cold blooded killer, Mikhail Popkov.