Criminal Behavior
The City of God is based on actual events that occurred in Rio de Janeiro during the 1960’s and 1970’s. The movie is about the rise and fall of a fearsome sociopath gang leader Li’l Ze, who reigned as king of the drug lords during the 70’s. The first part of the movie illustrates some of the forces that mold Li’l Ze into the man he becomes, while the second half shows his ruthless leap to power, followed by the war he wages against opposing gang leaders Carrot and Knockout Ned. The film is narrated by Rocket, a photographer who exists on the outskirts of Li’l Ze’s circle of dominance and control. In the film the city is filled with ruthless acts of delinquency and is basically in chaos. There are two theories that I would like to discuss in relation to the city’s unusually high criminal acts.
The first theory that I would like to discuss is the social disorganization theory.
The social disorganization theory is defined as the decline of influence of existing social rules of behavior upon individuals within a group. In essence, social disorganization is the consequence of a community's inability to realize common values and to solve the problems of its residents, resulting in the breakdown of effective social control within that community. The theory claims that delinquency is not caused at the individual level, but is considered to be the normal response of normal individuals to abnormal ...
Wiatrowski, M.D., Griswold, D.B., & Roberts, M.K. (1981). Social control theory and delinquency. American Sociological Review, 46(5), 525-541.
Just as the Olympics were held in Brazil, we heard on the news the constant increase of violence in children, and the even higher increment in the organized crime events in this country. But few of us understand the cold, horrific, and the traumatic experience of living surrounded by violent children in organized crime gangs, as well as the characters of City of God. The director of the movie Fernando Meirelles purposely shows us the way in which young children in Brazil learn to become violent at a young age, eventually still young get involved in organized crime gangs and their drug business, as well as in the gangs’ battles over territory and power. The director succeeded in presenting his point of view by using a different variety of movie
In ‘City of God’, Meirelles is attempting to highlight the issues surrounding life in the favelas and the impact that poverty and crime is having on individuals, and ultimately the country as a whole, through his use of themes such as poverty. Similarly, Kassovitz is attempting to highlight the social division between authoritarian
...(2006). Male and Female Youth in Canadian Communities: Assessing the Applicability of Social Disorganization Theory. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Justice, 48(1). 31-60. Retrieved from http://library.mtroyal.ca:3071/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=3&sid=292a4256-a368-4e74-a8e1-fff62158ca2f%40sessionmgr15&vid=5
Theorists believe that Shaw and McKay were biased when they wrote their conclusion on the lower-class neighborhood. This in turn resulted in other critics questioning if the demographics such as socio-economic, the setting of the communities and the population that composed the communities were indicators of social disorganization or if social theorists constitute their reasoning based on their own beliefs. According to Kurbin (2010), Criminologist Edwin Sutherland preferred to call Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization theory the differential social organization because of his belief that “the organization of the delinquent group, which is often very complex, is social disorganization only from an ethical or some other particularistic point of view.” This may be interpreted as him stating that a social group, such as a delinquent one, is only perceived as “disorganized” based on personal biases. According to Sutherland, some urban neighborhoods are not disorganized but organized based on the daily needs of the unique community. For example, if an outsider born and raised in a community with different set of values looks into a community with another perspective on how to function in a social environment, the outsider may think that they are wrong and ridiculous for living in such a matter. The outsider
By simply review, I will say, "City of God" ("Cidade de Deus") is the story of a boy who lives in a "favela" what is the word of slum in english on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. The "favela" is like a shantytown witch called "Cidade de Deus" in the film. And from the beginning to the end, throughout this stylish movie both the boy and the favela grow.
A raw glimpse of desperation, poverty and violence, the 2002 film City of God showcases the brutal and harsh realisms of Brazilians living in the oppressive confines of favelas. The story is told through the eyes of the main character, Rocket, a poor, black youth who grows up in the hostile environment of the hood but manages to break away to become a professional photographer. Oddly, the way of life in the City of God is anything but heavenly. The violent and fast paced film begins in the 1960s when Rio de Janeiro was just a new housing project and the main characters were children and petty thieves. The story then ends in the early 1980s when the favela is a war zone where most of the protagonists are either dead or engrossed in bloody drug war. Life in the favelas, urban poverty, violence and gender roles demonstrate a great deal of importance to the overall message of City of God. Although the film fails to propose an alternate way of life, it gives viewers a glimpse of the gruesome truths of a world they would have never imagined existed.
Sociologist utilizes several perspectives to explain individual motivations of deviance with an emphasis on biological, psychiatric, psychoanalytic, and psychological terms. The emergence of these ideals temporarily displaced social disorganization theory, which stresses a rapidly changing environment as the cause of deviant behavior. Social pathology seeks to explain deviance by evaluating conditions or circumstances, uniquely, affecting the individual. Sociological theories recognize the existense of social conditions that produce deviant behavior and how society identifies it.
... The second theory was a theory by Cloward and Ohlin which was called differential opportunity theory. Differential opportunity theory built off of Solomon Kobrin’s work of an integrated community. The third theory was a theory created by Walter Miller who came to different conclusion than the first two theories. Miller used an ethnography which was a technique based on the direct observation of a social group in their natural setting (Williams & McKay, 2014). The last major theory was a theory by Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti that was created a decade after the delinquent subculture theory. Wolfgang and Ferracuti attempted to integrate a wide range of disciplinary approaches to understand delinquent behavior (Williams & McKay, 2014). The four theories within the Subculture Theory were all different in ways but were all related to each other in ways also.
Social Control Theory presumes that people will naturally commit crime if there were left to their own devices (i.e. no laws in society) and people do not commit crimes because of certain controlling forces, such as social bonds that hold individuals back partaking on their anti social behavior (Bell, 2011). Examples of controlling forces are family, school, peers, and the law. Young people who are t... ... middle of paper ... ... nd delinquent are more likely to partake in committing criminal behavior (Shaefer and Haaland, 2011, p.155-156).
According to Krohn (1986) bridged together theoretical propositions from the delinquency-enhancing effects of differential association and the delinquency-constraining effects of social bonds, as these interact with social learning and social control. His network theory maintains that the lower the network density in relationship to population density, the weaker the constraints against nonconformity, and the higher rates of
Agnew, R. (1985). Social Control Theory and Delinquency: A Longitudinal Test. Criminology Volume 23 , 47-59.
Shaw and Henry D. McKay who set out to figure out why normal human beings become delinquent by creating three maps of Chicago (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). By doing this, Shaw and McKay attempted to determine the reasons why human beings who are considered to be normal acted in delinquent ways. Spot maps were used to find where the youth’s resided based off of their police and court records, rate maps showed the percentage of the total juvenile population in Chicago that had police or court records, and zone maps showed the rates of male juveniles that were delinquents within Chicago’s zones (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). As a result of the study in Chicago, they determined that delinquents were not much different from non-delinquents in regards to physical and personal traits. They did determine that cities such as Chicago and other big cities suffered from social disorganization because the “usual controls over delinquents are largely absent, delinquent behavior is often approved of by parents and neighbors, many opportunities are available for delinquent behavior, and little encouragement, training, or opportunity exists for legitimate employment” (Bohm & Vogel, 2011, p.
As kids grow up, they’re unable to fully align their actions with reason and conjure their own beliefs without outside influences. According to Shaw and McKay, younger people who associate with peers that are gang members or affiliates are more likely to partake in similar activities. Ultimately “criminal behavior is learned through social interactions.” (p.44). Although those who grow up in a disorganized community are more likely to develop a weaker sense of control, doesn’t necessarily mean they cannot develop a strong one. Similar to those who have grown up in a well-controlled neighborhood, there will always be both criminal influences and conventional influences. Sutherland introduces this idea though his theory of differential association. Whichever influence stand dominate over time, that particular person will embrace one side or the other. These idea of differential association gave inspiration to dig even further into this claim. With different sources of influences such as, relationships with family, organizations and public relations can either support the youth’s values or hinder them. So, looking at a well-organized neighborhood. In most cases, family members are well educated, formulate positive organizations and have little to no trouble with the law. As a result, impacts the youth in a way which we consider law-abiding. On the other hand, those who are part of an organized community are
City of Angels The film City of Angels depicts the existence of an angel watching over a doctor who is deeply shaken by the loss of one of her patients, thus making the reality of angels on earth a possibility for me. Not only does this film make me seriously consider the existence of celestial beings, but I now believe in the possibility that a guardian angel is looking after me. The belief in such beings can be comforting during times of need and in matters of life and death. City of Angels portrays the grace of Heaven meeting the beauty of Earth.