One million people in the United States engage in gang activities. There are over 20,000 gangs. Thirteen percent of all homicides in a year are people who are involved in gangs. Many gangs are affiliated with gun violence and drug and alcohol abuse. People who encircle themselves in this can lead to them making poor choices. Each time someone makes a deficient decision, it becomes easier for them to keep doing it, making it a habit. In the novel, Dear Justice by Nic Stone, the author uses symbolism, characterization, and plot events to show that surrounding yourself with good influences is important to make proficient decisions. One way Nic Stone shows that surrounding yourself with good influencers is important to making proficient decisions …show more content…
Throughout the story, Nic Stone explains Quan’s constantly changing personality. At the beginning of the story, Quan is described as “keep[ing] his head above water when everything around him was crashing down” (Stone 29). Quan had to take care of his family while his dad was spending time in jail. He was persistent and tried his best to maintain good grades and stay social with his close friends. He also has to care for his mom because of her new boyfriend Dwight, who is a domestic abuser. Quan had so much weight on his shoulders. He is trying to make the right decisions and take care of everyone he cares about. Although he is surrounded by terrible people, he tries to do the right thing. Eventually, Quan was tired of constantly worrying about how his siblings were going to get their next meal because Dwight took the EBT card. So Quan decided to steal for the first time. Just a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, so he could feed his siblings. The author writes, “First few days, they were okay. They had Hawaiian rolls, too. Half a dozen eggs. Quarter jar of peanut butter. Two TV dinners and three pot pies in the freezer. Day four, got tight. Day five: Dasia and Gabe split the final pot pie. Quan didn’t eat anything. Gabe complained that he was still hungry, so Quan gave him the slice of crap pizza he’d smuggled from school. Quan stayed hungry for a while. Quan gulped the squid. He looked left at me. He looked right at me. Then he grabbed a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, and walked out of the store. His First Time. Stealing” (Stone 50). Quan always puts everyone else in front of him. He cared more about his siblings than he cared about himself. He was willing to risk getting arrested for his family. As his character develops and learns how the world works, Quan tries to make the right decisions. Another place in the
Crime and deviant behavior surprisingly helps increase “social activity” among various different people within a society. Therefore, crime and deviant behavior brings “people together in a common posture of anger and indignation…when these people come together to express their outrage over the offense…they develop a tighter sense of solidarity than existed earlier” (Erikson 4). For example, in the Steven Avery case, the people of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, all had very strong feelings of Steven Avery and his family, and as a result they were seen as deviant people in their own hometown. Those feelings towards him, and his family, would be a critical factor when he was accused of the horrendous crime (Making). Based on their feelings towards the Avery family, the society in which he lived developed the overall concept of us versus them (Erikson 11). Therefore, another concept that arises as a result of crime and deviant behavior is public temper, which is described as a “mutual group feeling” (Erikson
This model’s theorists argue that abnormal behavior is best understood in light of the social and cultural forces that influence an individual; as such they address the norms of and people’s roles in society. When Kody was a young boy, society’s cultural forces that had the biggest impact on his life were gangs. Gangs were all around him and because they were all around him, gangs became a normal part of life as they were a big part of south central Las Angeles’s culture. Culture refers to the set of values, attitudes, beliefs, history, and behaviors shared by a group of people and communicated from one generation to the next. There is no doubt in my mind after reading this book and what I have heard about south central Las Angeles that there is a lack of normal values that the majority of the United States shares.
For example, police and probation officers become involved in non-criminal justice matters at schools and in the community, often times by advising parents and students on academic matter. According to some of the boys in Rios book, probation officers served the purpose of punishing them by branding them criminal in front of the rest of the community, which prompted victimization by peers, stigmatization in the community, and rearrests for minor infractions. Eventually, the youth learned to manipulate the system and increasing recidivism. Rios also notes that some youth were being incarcerated through false accusations, police “step-ups”, entrapments, and forced testimonies that led many of the boys to declare a vow against everyone providing information to police, even when they were the victims. Also, the gang database accentuates criminalization, as it permits police to keep track of most at-risk juveniles and impose tougher policing and harsher sentencing.* In other words, police roles leak into other aspects of juvenile’s lives, which have led to an increase in criminalization. As a result, for many of the juveniles’ detention facilities have become preferred social settings because they provide the structure, and discipline, they don’t receive from their families and the
Do the Right Thing lands at number ninety-six on the American Film Institute’s List of the one hundred best movies of all time. In 1997, the American Film Institute selected the one hundred best American movies of all time and updated the top one hundred list in 2007. The director of Do the Right Thing is Spike Lee, the main actors are Rosie Perez and Danny Aiello, and the cinematographer is Ernest Dickerson. The movie stars Danny Aiello as Sal, a tough guy who owns a Sal’s Famous Pizzeria. Also, Do the Right Thing portrays Spike Lee as a kid delivering pizza named Mookie who knows that there is no future in his job. The setting is in the Bedford-Stuyevesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. The main source of conflict is the race relationships
Do the Right Thing directed by Spike Lee is harsh criticism of the rising racial tensions in a multicultural neighborhood. From the American-Italian pizzeria to the Korean-owned corner store, to the African American and Latino residents, racial undertones are asserted in nearly every interaction. Throughout the movie, the theme of racial tension is exploited by Lee’s use of character types, perspective, patterns, and viewer expectations.
Miller, Walter B. "Lower Glass Culture and Gang Delinquency." Crime in Society. Edited by L.D. Savitz and N. Johnston. Wiley. New York. 174-185. 1978.
The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring is an intriguing narrative of the experiences Terry Williams witnessed first hand while observing the lives of “The Kids” and their involvement in the cocaine trade. Throughout this piece, there are numerous behaviors displayed by the drug dealers that are each examples of and can be attributed to well-defined criminological theories. This paper will explore how such criminological theories are associated with how and why individuals are introduced into the world of drug selling, as well as, why they leave it. I will elaborate on this by revealing the motivations and conditions that seem to pressurize these individuals to be drug dealers. Although there are multiples shown, the specific theories I will explore are all based on the same idea that an individual becomes a criminal by learning how to be one through experiences, examples, role models, etc. Such theories include the theory of Differential Association, Subculture of Violence Theory, and the Social Learning Theory.
During the course of our class we have encountered plenty of important topics and vital information that is essential to the field of the Criminal Justice system. Such as; Crime and justice including laws, Victimization and Criminal behavior, Laws, Police officers and Law enforcement and the criminal justice system in itself. These topics are daily situations yet individuals are oblivious to what's going on and that in it can be a major problem to the community. On that note this paper will express the ignorance and selfish values of twelve individuals by fully explaining the movie "Twelve Angry Men"
Many things contribute to the corruption of our justice system. Within the past five years, through police brutality the United States has shown how tainted it really is. In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson argues that because of family history, misunderstanding youth, and background, our justice system is defined by error. His many points and examples give exceptional proof to his findings. While the government has made some changes over the years for the justice system subjects such as the incarceration of minors and police and laws within the system still need adjusting.
High crime rates are an ongoing issue through the United States, however the motivation and the cause of crime has yet to be entirely identified. Ronald Akers would say that criminality is a behavior that is learned based on what an individual sees and observes others doing. When an individual commits a crime, he or she is acting on impulse based on actions that they have seen others engage in. Initially during childhood, individuals learn actions and behavior by watching and listening to others, and out of impulse they mimic the behavior that is observed. Theorist Ronald Akers extended Sutherland’s differential association theory with a modern viewpoint known as the social learning theory. The social learning theory states that individuals commit crime through their association with or exposure to others. According to Akers, people learn how to be offenders based on their observations around them and their association with peers. Theorist Akers states that for one, “people can become involved in crime through imitation—that is by modeling criminal conduct. Second, and most significant, Akers contended that definition and imitation are most instrumental in determining initial forays into crime” (Lilly, Cullen, and Ball 2011:57). Although Akers’ theory has been linked to juvenile delinquency in the past, it has also been tested as a possible cause of crime overall. Individuals learn from observation that criminal behavior is justifiable in certain circumstances. In connection with juvenile delinquency and crime, peers and intimate groups have the most effect on individuals when associated with criminal behavior. One is more likely to mimic the behavior of someone who they have close ties with, whether the behavior is justifiable or...
Many young people join street gangs due to weak family relationships and poor social control. 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...
With excitements, many teens get hurry out to disobey authority or involvement in crimes. The young may be engrossed to the mob’s way of living as it stays out of the law and takes place in illegal behaviors. Others prefer to be in the mob because of the many problems they encounter at homes. With the promise of a greater life by the gangs then the excited teens get attracted to the illegal activities of the mob (Bryman, 2008).
Therefore, if the individual role amongst his conventional group and his institutional group is failure, then he or she will participate in crime and commit to what is expected of him, through these groups, once strain causes bonds to weaken a youth is free to engage in delinquency.
Inevitably, teens who were “immersed in drugs and gangs,” from a young age are more susceptible to epidemics of drugs and crime. This breaches the question of who’s fault is it really? Is it the parents who failed to establish the shaky line between right and wrong, the delinquent, or the cops who never fail to throw anyone suspicious in jail without a second glance? Instead of torturing young individuals who have their whole lives ahead of them, we should expose them to a life without violence and drugs. Perhaps young delinquents don’t fully understand a life where violence isn’t a defense mechanism.
They are built from an alliance that believes in the same principles, norms, and beliefs. These beliefs and values generate a and that is stronger and more loyal than the rest of the larger group of society. These bonds can, however, generate a loyalty that may drive individual past social expectations and into the physical act of committing a crime. Criminal subculture is a driving force for delinquency and gang activity. One of the biggest foreseen criminal subcultures in society is gangs.