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…
monster” and from that point on that was who he became. Kody cared deeply about his reputation and how his crew perceived him, He was ambitious in the way that he did everything he could to live up to his name and gain more respect in the gang. He spent sixteen years doing just that. When Kody was sixteen when he met Tamu Shakur, the eighteen year old that would be his girlfriend and then later his wife. A year after they met Tamu gave birth to a little girl, which they named Keonda. Keonda was the first of the three children that the couple would have. Although Kody had a young child and a wife at home he didn’t stop his criminal ways. On, the night of January 1, 1980 Kody was ambushed and shot five times by a rival gang. The experience seemed not to deter him from the life of crime but he did move his family to a house in the suburbs and got a job at a local college in the financial aid department in an attempt to leave the life of crime behind. Before long, Kody was arrested again and spent five years in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison. During those five years he wrote an autobiography of his life of crime called Monster: The Autobiography Of An L.A. Gang Member. While in solitary he also converted to Islam. His book was published in 1993 and after his release he was serious about ending his life of crime once and for all. Sadly in 1996, he returned to prison for violating his parole with the possession of marijuana. March of 2007 he was placed on the city’s most-wanted gang member list for breaking into a home and beating the resident. This being his third strike could have seen him facing life in prison but in May of 2008 he pleaded no contest to the charges and served only six years instead of life. That very year he published another book called T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. Many social theorists have tried to explain gang behaviors and crime in general. Social theorists in particular believe that the biggest element to criminal behavior is the dominance of social and economic influences. Two theories stand out and seem to really explain why young Kody Scott became Kody “Monster” Scott. The first one is Differential Association Theory. Differential Association Theory states that all behavior has to be learned and we then choose the behaviors that are most rewarding and pleasurable to us. So in essence criminal behavior has to be learned. Human beings crave acceptance and as such learn from reinforcement and approval for their actions. The night that Kody was initiated into the Crips was the first time he really experienced what being in a gang would mean, it was the first time he killed anyone. When he went home that night he was guilty and ashamed of what he did yet when he didn’t decide to quit the gang right then and there. Kody chose the pride that came with the approval and praise of his fellow gang members over what he knew was morally right to do. The gang gave him approval that as time went on seemed like he would never get at home. His relationship with mother was pulled further and further away from the very beginning so his only choice was to seek that love elsewhere. "I knew she meant well, but I wasn't up to it tonight. I wanted to be loved, to be missed, to be wanted, not scolded". (Scott 173) Even his father contributed to him feeling the need to seek acceptance elsewhere. His father by leaving had indirectly told him that he doesn’t accept him, that he doesn’t care about him. When his father wrote him a letter Kody couldn’t even bother to finish the letter he “mailed it half finished like his fatherhood had been”. (Scott 348) While he was trying to write it he blamed his father for the way he came out and in essence it was his fault to some extent. “I needed you, man, and you weren’t there for me and It’s people like you who contribute to the destruction of people like me.” (Scott 348) The second criminological theory is Labeling Theory. Labeling theory states that a person’s behavior can be influenced by terms to describe them or classify them. They believe that deviance is caused by negative labeling. Kody came from a broken household in a lower class neighborhood. Him being a minority made that even worse for him. Having the already preconceived notion from society that he was nothing but trouble and people from that area do drugs or join gangs he would feel as if he had no other choice. Society had already choose for him. When he was labeled a monster and his gang gave him praise because of it he accepted that title and truly became a monster. He embraced the title and made it his own. This theory unlike the other doesn’t explain why he would have started in the first place but it does give a deeper approach on why he would have continued. The criminological theory that provides the worst explanation for the criminal behavior and attitudes described in Monster is Rational Choice Theory.
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
crime. In short, I believe that Kody Scott’s criminal behavior can be explained by Differential Association Theory and Labeling Theory. He craved attention and acceptance that he didn’t get at his broken home and after being labeled a monster and getting praised for it he did all he could to live up to such a title. Rational Choice Theory could not explain Kody’s choices because most of them had huge risks with the only reward being the praise of his fellow gang members.
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
Pratt, T. C. (2008). Rational Choice theory, criminal control policy, and criminology relevance. Policy essay, 43-52.
In Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member, Kody Scott tells the story of the struggle between two significantly large gangs. At the age of eleven he was initiated into the Crips, and committed his first murder. It was this day that began what would become a career for Kody: banging (Scott, 1993).
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.
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
In this case study, Laura and Danny have had significant changes in their lives. Laura has now left with the children and planning on moving with them to El Paso, Texas in a month. She has also filed for divorce from Danny. While Laura is making positive improvements to her life she is still concerned for Danny. She goes to collect what’s left of her belongings when she finds Danny in a state of panic. Danny has let himself go at this point. He started consuming alcohol, has not found a job, and is living with no electricity. Kid decides to pay Danny and Laura a visit and he quickly realizes Danny is in trouble. Danny begs for Kid’s assistance in order to help him start a new life. Danny is worried that he will end up alone and homeless
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.
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 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.
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