Crime In Alex Kotlowitz's 'There Are No Children Here'

While crime is abundant throughout our world, it’s image is often magnified in urban cities. In the book, There Are No Children Here, Alex Kotlowitz describes the striking story of two brothers, Lafayette and Pharoah, struggling to survive in the community of Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex on the West Side of Chicago disfigured by crime and neglect. With their mother’s permission, Kotlowitz follows the lives of the brothers for two years, taking note of their disappointments, joys, and tragedies along the way. Throughout the book, the environment that the boys are forced to live in acts as a predictor for their potential crime-filled future. Using environmental theories, such as James Wilson’s broken windows theory, we, as readers,

Poorly kept neighborhoods house more amounts of criminal behavior than other areas in the community because over time, everyone in the community stopped caring about the upkeep of the neighborhood’s appearance as well as the neighborhood as a whole. This lowers the social control of the neighborhood, or the strength of people holding each other accountable for the rules of society. According to Wilson, if the boys continue living in in the run down, poverty-stricken environment of Henry Horner Homes as they grow up, they will be more likely to engage in criminal behaviors when later in their

The theory is based on the assumption that crime can be committed by anyone that has the opportunity. Let’s say that the family remains stuck in poverty as the brothers reach adulthood. One day, Jimmie Lee, the head drug dealer of the area, proposed the idea of having the boys deal drugs to earn more money. The brothers can be viewed as motivated offenders, given their prolonged financial hardship and limited means to make a brighter future for themselves. The boys have easy access to drug gangs, such as Jimmie Lee’s Conservative Vice Lords (p. 34), as well as many potential buyers living in the housing projects. Their criminal behavior is also enabled through the absence of guardianship. As Kotlowitz explains, “Residents so feared and respected the gang’s control that they refused to call 911” (p. 34). The police did know about Jimmie Lee’s criminal history and intent. However, this fear within the community, along with the lower social control that it brings, makes it easier for the Lafayette and Pharoah to commit criminal behavior such as this without getting