Alex Gibney’s Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer

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Criminal and deviant behavior is not always inherently part of an individuals nature, it is learned. It’s not inherited or a result of a biological condition. Rather, criminal and deviant behavior is learned in the same way all other behaviors are learned. According to Edwin H. Sutherland in his differential association theory, learning comes from interactions between individuals and groups. Individuals commit criminal or deviant acts due to repeated contacts and interactions with criminal activity and the possible lack of contact with noncriminal activity. This explains crime at the level of individual and society. Alex Gibney’s documentary Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer takes an in depth look at the once known New York Attorney General and Governor who prosecuted crimes by America’s largest financial institutions as well as some of the most powerful executives. However, it was later revealed he had been involved in a sex scandal. He was accused of seeing prostitutes and the known “Sheriff of Wall Street” fell quickly. The documentary explores the hidden profile of learning pride, arrogance, sex, and especially power. Spitzer’s acts of wrongdoing and dishonesty run counter to his career commitment to fighting corruption, however, the actions of Spitzer and the prostitutes parallel what they surround themselves with and learn in the context of their training.

Eliot Spitzer, son of a rich father determined to make him America's first Jewish president, Princeton grad, husband, father, made himself a regular patron of an escort service in his suit and tie that adjusted to its clients self-delusions. Spitzer was born in New York, graduated from Princeton University and attended law school at Harvard. He was an ...

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...vidual. Sutherland suggests that behaviors such as these are learned. Criminal knowledge is not unique compared to the learning of other behaviors and those individuals who repeatedly associate and are concerned with power or criminal activity are the ones more disposed to act rebelliously against societal norms. The documentary investigates Eliot Spitzer’s high energy and spirit to eliminate crimes by powerful executives, large financial institutions, and even prostitution. However, his involvement in a sex scandal with high end prostitutes is an example of how people may learn criminal and deviant behaviors. His deviant acts come from his commitment to fighting corruption just as the actions of the escort services originate from what they have learned and circumscribe with.

Work Cited

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer. Directed by Alex Gibney. 2010

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