Criminological Theories, Ideas, And Film Reflection: Valentine Road

1362 Words3 Pages

Film Reflection #2 The documentary "Valentine Road" connects with many ideas and topics that have been discussed in various theories, lectures, and book readings. This terrifying documentary shows the difficult lives of Brandon McInerney and Lawrence King. An unfortunate incident took place in Oxnard, where King has been shot and killed by McInerney. This entire incident was surrounded in controversy especially because of the fact that King was homosexual. There are quite a few ideas and topics of victimization that can be applied to both individuals, but some applicable ideas and concepts consist of identifying who the victims are and what consequences they suffered and also why, bullying, and criminological theories. Many believe that King …show more content…

Schafer’s concept of functional responsibility involves victims being victimized due to their acts of negligence, provocations, and precipitative actions. (2016, p.5.) In this instance, King would be considered a precipitative victim due to his actions of dressing up and flirting with McInerney as described previously. The type of precipitation would be active because of King's provocative female like clothing and make up as well as his sexual advances towards McInerney. (Herrera, 2017.) In addition, the dynamic cause perspective can be used to see how victimization and the offending are directly influenced by one another. To be specific, the strain theory by Robert Agnew can be applicable here because McInerney experienced many negative emotions from King. (2016, p.43.) Von Hetig also had a similar theory where the primary emphasis was on the dynamics and typology, with King being young and mentally defective in this instance. In addition, as mentioned above, King and McInerney both had a troubled upbringing, and did not develop a solid bond with their parents and they both witnessed a form of abuse. They had to grow up without parental guidance, love, and much

Show More
Related

  • The Tragic Case of Larry and Brandon

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    To start off Brandon was in many ways provoked by Larry. Attorneys for Brandon McInerney argue that their client, who was 14 when he gunned down Larry King in an Oxnard junior high school computer lab, was so humiliated by King's flirtation that it provoked him to kill his classmate. Larry approached Brandon numerous times upsetting him in different ways. There are even rumors about King blowing kisses at McInerney and asking him to be his valentine. On the day before the shooting King loudly said “Love you, baby!” to McInerney as they passed in a corridor. King’s sexual advances fueled his anger towards Larry. Brandon saw that Larry was allowed to come to school wearing girls clothing and m...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Criminological Theories In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

    2281 Words  | 5 Pages

    The novel, Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson is an incredible read. In this book, Mr.

    Read More

  • Rios Punished Summary

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    Observing masculinity: Masculinity affects the lives of these boys, from the expectation of violence. Youth Demographics: Neighborhood with high violent-crime rates and had sibling or friends who had been previously involved with crime. (Punished: Policing the lives of Black and Latino boys, PG 14&17) The purpose is for society to have a depth understanding to how these young boys try, so that there not punished as youth; rather create opportunity and understanding rather than constraining

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Movie Crimes and Misdemeanors

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    Released in 1989, Crimes and Misdemeanors outlines the lives of two men; Cliff Stern and Judah Rosenthal. Cliff Stern, a small time film-maker, struggles to succeed in both his career and marriage. While Judah Rosenthal, a wealthy ophthalmologist, faces moral dilemmas after having an affair with a young mistress. Judah's mistress expects him to leave his wife and when he doesn't she threatens to expose the secret relationship. Unsure Judah contemplates whether or not killing the mistress, to protect his comfortable lifestyle, is morally comprehensible. Ultimately, Judah decides to pay for the murder and gets away with it. Surrounding Judah's decision and Cliff's struggles, minor characters emerge within the plot embodying specific philosophical viewpoints. One of these characters is a professor and philosopher named Louis Levy who voices the importance of love. Shortly before committing suicide Levy says something rather ambiguous about love; "it is only we, with our capacity to love, that give meaning to an indifferent universe; and yet, most human beings seem to have the ability to...

    Read More

  • The Conflict Theory Of Crime In The Central Park Five

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it

    Read More

  • The Criminological Imagination By Jock Young

    1539 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jock Young’s book “The Criminological Imagination” very clearly spells out the author’s feeling that orthodox criminology has lost its way and has been swallowed up into obscurification through bogus, post-modern positivism. Young postulates, the cost of this phenomena is the loss of critical thinking and objectivity in the field of criminology. Young contends criminology can be rescued from obscurity if returning to its orthodox beginnings by reducing the impact of neo-liberalism with critical imagination, and not simply succumbing to empirical data to try to explain everything. Young contends, doing so seems to simply cloud the view, thus giving rise to a host of incomplete and overly politicized theories.

    Read More

  • Larry King Case Study

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    On February 12, 2008, 15 year old Larry King was shot in the back of the head by 14 year old Brandon McInerney in a middle school classroom in Oxnard, California. King was sitting in his seat, completing his work, and McInerney shot him. Prior to the incident, McInerney expressed on many occasions to his peers that he disliked the compliments that King relayed to him on his physical appearance and also had a profound hatred for King’s feminine gender expression. King was kept on life support for two days and died of brain damage. The facts presented to me made it clear that McInerney should grow old in prison for such a violent and intentional crime, but sadly that is not the case. McInerney was sentenced to 21 years in prison and will be released in in his mid thirties. Larry King, however, is deceased and the school will not allow for a plaque to be put in front of a tree that was planted in his honor.

    Read More

  • The Cause Of Violence In The Documentary: Tough Guise

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    The documentary demonstrates the connection between violence and social standards of masculinity by showing how masculinity is portrayed in the media. The media, as stated in the documentary,

    Read More

  • Guns And Violence Book Review

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    The social world of these youths is characterized by violence, internalized street codes, limited opportunities, and the availability of firearms. Violent events are public social performances. These performances often have serious consequences for social identity and personal safety. Wilkinson shows how violence is a resource for gaining/maintaining social identity (masculinity) and status on the street. The dynamic of moving from victim to victimizer is clearly understood in the socio-cultural context of the street.

    Read More

  • Criminological Theories

    1966 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many of the traditional criminological theories focused more on biological, psychological and sociological explanations of crime rather than on the cost and benefits of crime. More conservative approaches, including routine actives, lifestyle exposure and opportunity theories have clearly incorporated crime rate patterns as a fundamental part of analyzing the economics of crime. Crime statistics are important for the simple reason that they help put theories into a logical perspective. For example, a prospective home owner may want to look at crime rates in areas of potential occupancy. On a more complex level, it helps law enforcement and legislators create effective crime reduction programs. Furthermore, it also helps these agencies determine if crime prevention programs, that have been in effect, have been successful. There are many factors that influence the rates of crime including socio economic status, geographical location, culture and other lifestyle factors. More specifically, Messner and Blau (1987) used routine activities theory to test the relationship between the indicators of leisure activities and the rate of serious crimes. They discussed two types of leisure actives, the first being a household pastime, which primarily focused on television watching. The second type was a non-household leisure event which was consisted of attendance to sporting events, cinemas, and entertainment districts. The focus of this paper will be to study the effects that substantial amounts of leisure activities have on the offender and the victim. Leisure activities not only make a crime more opportunistic for offenders, it may also provide offenders with motivation to engage in criminal activity. On the other hand, it may also be argue...

    Read More

  • The Sociological Causes Of Criminology

    3067 Words  | 7 Pages

    One of the biggest concerns of criminology is the reason why the criminals commit the crimes that they do. Whether it’s due to a mental disease or genetics. Even if the criminal is healthy and has been planning it for months analyzing the consequences and results. Could the society that the criminal has grown up in ever be at fault causing him to act the way he or she did? People have been trying to find the reason that criminals commit these crimes for many years, and the numbers of theories that have been come up with looks to be the same number of criminologists. A criminologist is “one who studies the biological and sociological causes and consequences of crime and criminal behavior (such as the effects of mental defects and social environment).” Their job is to figure out why criminals acted the way they did and how to change the person in order to not repeat it, in other words rehabilitate them. Rehabilitation teaches the prisons to live a better life when let out instead of being punished in prison. When a criminal commits a crime the reason for the action is a very important part of the case and after the prisoner is behind bars, then they can find a solution for the crime to not be repeated by the same convict.

    Read More

  • Critical Criminology

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    Critical criminology, also known as radical criminology dates back to the concepts of Marxism. Despite the fact that Fredric Engels and Karl Marx were the founders of contemporary radical criminology, none of them gave explicit focus to crime. William Bonger (1876-1940), a Dutch criminologist was a more direct founder of this concept. It gained popularity during the early 1970s when it tried to explain the causes of contemporary social mayhem. He used economic explanations were used by critical criminology to analyze social behavior by arguing that social and economic inequalities were the main reason behind criminal behavior (Henry & Lainer, 1998). This view reduces the focus on individual criminals and elaborates that the existing crime is as a result of the capitalist system. Just like the conflict school of thought, it asserts that law is biased since it favors the ruling or the upper class and that the legal system that governs the state is meant to maintain the status quo of the ruling class. Critical criminologist are of the view that political, corporate and environmental crime are not only underreported but also inadequately punished by the existing criminal legal system.

    Read More

  • Representation Of Crime In The Media

    1849 Words  | 4 Pages

    The media today is often taken for granted; as people don’t realize the dominance the media source holds in the modern world. Through media sources such as newspaper, TV and social media crime could be easily spread through out the world within seconds. As a result of this, humans understanding of crime and crime control are largely relied upon the media as evidently most people will not be in those serious criminal situations. The media however takes advantage of this situation by exaggerating crime scenes and focusing on particular crimes to make the public fear. Particular groups in the media are stereotyped to an extent where the public foresees then as ‘dangerous’. As a consequence, a change in the public’s perception of crime has forced

    Read More

  • The Positivist School of Criminology

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    The positivist school was created in the 1800's and was based on the principle that the only way to truly understand something in society was by looking at it from a scientific point of view (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer 2012). There were many people who contributed to the positivist school, however the person who first placed an emphasis on a scientific approach was Auguste Comte (Adler et al 2012). By approaching criminology in a more scientific way, a lot more progress was made, as people began to consider the reasons for criminal behavior from a different perspective. Another key figure in the positive school was Charles Darwin (Adler et al 2012). When he proposed the theory of evolution it caused society to become more open-minded in regards to their views about the world, as people started to rely more on science (Adler et al 2012). Due to the contributions from Comte and Darwin, the positive school of thought was able to gain traction and in turn was able to help develop the field of criminology.

    Read More

  • criminology theories

    1368 Words  | 3 Pages

    Criminology is the scientific study of why people commit crime and why they act the way they do. The origins of criminology are usually placed in the eighteenth to the mid- nineteenth century. This was also a point of scientific discoveries and the creation of the new scholarly field of studies. One of these was criminology. Criminology was an act against the wild system of law, punishment, and justice that existed before the French revolution. (Adler, Mueller, Laufer & Grekul, 2012). There are many criminology theories that explain why an individual commit a crime. Anomie/stain theory and labelling theory are two important theories in criminology. There are two different kinds of theories, psychological theories and biological theories. Both of those theories share the assumption that such behaviour is caused by some underlying physical or mental condition that separates the criminal from the non-criminal. They seek to identify the kind of person who becomes a criminal and to find the factors that caused the person to engage in criminal behavior. (Adler et al.,).

    Read More

More about Criminological Theories, Ideas, And Film Reflection: Valentine Road

Open Document