Streets of Chicago The film, The Interrupters, explains about a group of people in Chicago that are fighting for a ceasefire (Kotlowitz, 2012). This group of interrupters is comprised of ex-gang members that have been recruited to stop the violence (Kotlowitz, 2012). For many years the streets of Chicago have been full of violence; the incidents that were occurring involve many fatal shootings that have taken the lives of many young people in the community. According to the film, “nine people were shot in five hours” and there was a thirteen year old boy that was shot twenty-two times (Kotlowitz, 2012). The consequences of actions are not thought about, and many people in Chicago are acting violently in retaliation instead of thinking about …show more content…
One of the theories that is associated with this school is the “Concentric Zone Theory”, which states that some of the highest crime rates will occur in the zone in transition (Lilly, 2012, p. 40). This is shown in the film when looking at the neighborhoods where much of the crime occurs. These neighborhoods are full of families that live in or close to poverty (Kotlowitz, 2012). The violence interrupters were taking a large step in trying to solve many of these problems, much like Shaw and McKay, with neighborhood organization (Lilly, 2012, p. 41). The group of people in the film would walk around and talk to citizens within the community and try and explain to them that violence was not the answer. They wanted the youth and the people on the streets to know that situations could be handled differently and one way to stop the violence that was occurring was by calling a ceasefire. The Chicago School of Criminology also explains that “juveniles were often drawn into crime through their association with older siblings or gang members” (Lilly, 2012, p. 41). Many of the youth that were involved in crimes in the film had history of crimes in their families. Some, like the people in the violence interrupters group, were able to escape the life of violence and continue to share their story and hopefully help people. Much of the crimes throughout the show were based on blood …show more content…
When help presented itself, many of the people at least made an effort to change and realize that violence was not the answer. The amount of people that are shot and killed in Chicago is a surprising number. Many of the violence does not come from someone necessarily being a bad person, but someone who is unwilling to back down from any situation (Kotlowitz, 2012). In Chicago many believe that “death before dishonor” is a good motto to live life by (Kotlowitz, 2012). The funerals that people attend are just a reminder to them, that one day the way they live their lives on the street will catch up to them (Kotlowitz, 2012). The violence interrupters are working hard in Chicago to help the people in the society, but if people do not want to change it is hard to make a difference (Kotlowitz, 2012). The people in Chicago also have to put in the work to make the community a better place, so that they feel safe leaving their houses instead of feeling like “every time [they] go outside somebody is going to get killed” (Kotlowitz,
Geoffrey Canada gives his readers a rare opportunity to look inside the life of a ghetto kid and what they have to go through just to survive. He also provides answers to the many questions asked of why certain things happen the way they do in the Bronx. He used his childhood experiences and turned them into a unique tool when helping the youth of today. Now that he works as a youth councilor he sees that the problem in the slums has gotten dramatically worse with the emergence of guns. It used to be about pride and status, now any thug with a gun can be feared in the community. This, to Canada is a major problem because guns gives kids a sense of power, a strong feeling that is often abused and results in someone, even an innocent person dead.
The Interrupters is a 2011 film directed by Steve James that speaks volume on inner city violence. This film accurately portrays urban life and issues that arise from it. With brilliant cinematography, this film describes social problems, social norms, and inner city culture and demonstrates it through a strategically written and shot film. The Interrupters was informative, eye opening, touching, and relevant to today’s time. This is true because there is perhaps an even larger violence epidemic in the United States than when the film came out.
Most people would agree that some violence is in everyone, but it seems that well educated people often find other means to conquer their problems or go about solving them. Through history knowledge has proved to be an unavoidable part of life. As children in the community began dropping out of schools in vast numbers these kids were forced to, willingly or not, gain knowledge elsewhere (1998). A macro cause for the growing numbers of students dropping out of school and joining the gangs, could be that the ideas and values of those gangs quickly spread through the streets and classrooms. This Leads the teenagers to make decisions about wether or not they agree with the
The vicious cycle created by the code of streets that Elijah Anderson discusses is never ending. Anderson brings up many different factors in the cycle that keep it going, only inhancing crime. Every example the author brought up were actions used to gain respect in the streets. Kids are raised around the violence and are then encouraged by their parents to keep the cycle going. The kids are taught to defend themselves and always win the fight. They have to win fights, be violent and act tough to gain respect. Their accomplishments in violence hold their respect status in the streets. Learning to fight like this and continue the violence cycle then gives people on the streets low tolerance. They are easy to lash out. All of these examples
Throughout the article “The Code of the Streets,” Elijah Anderson explains the differences between “decent” and “street” people that can be applied to the approaches of social control, labeling, and social conflict theories when talking about the violence among inner cities due to cultural adaptations.
However, how a community goes about dealing with this issue is controversial. According to the Office of Justice Programs, Operation Ceasefire “seeks to reduce gang violence, illegal gun possession, and gun violence in communities.” Officials for Operation Ceasefire advocate for local law enforcement to vamp up patrols in areas where violent crime is common. However, this could be an unintended consequence for those who live in these areas that don’t engage in violence. Essentially, maybe individuals in the community will not like the increased police patrols and will retaliate in a deviant manner. Also, it is important to understand that not all individuals get “chosen” to be part of Operation Ceasefire. Maybe those who don’t pass the screening process to partake will act out. In other words, when they see their friends partaking in the intervention and doing well, those who don’t get chosen may respond in a deviant manner. These are just a few unintended consequences that may be expected when communities implement this
The increase in population due to the Great Migration led Chicago to be the nation’s fastest growing city. In the city, homicide rates increased dramatically. The nature of homicide among African Americans in Chicago changed when the traditional impulsive violence between young boys became family violence or fights with acquaintances. Essentially, the Southern African Americans who moved to northern cities for freedom still experienced discrimination in jobs and housing from whites living in the neighborhoods prior. Many of them became frustrated about this and proceeded to demonstrate that through violence. In result of the increased violence, juvenile courts were developed. To address the concerns of juvenile delinquency, Chicago initially advocated courts to punish them for the acts of violence. The courts were filled with cases of violence between races due to the increasing racial tensions in neighborhoods throughout Chicago. Often, racist comments would be made, or an African American would fight against segregation or speak out and there would be a fight. Acts of violence became more and more common throughout the city and the juvenile courts were only one way to attempt to solve it. In Standing at Armageddon: A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era, it is said that the violence in Chicago was “the
These crime-ridden communities (or ghettos) are springing up all through the country, mainly in and around major metropolitan areas. These areas are the most populated, so that means that within these areas are the most people there to be influenced by the crimes committed by fellow people. In Male's reading he shows statistics that prove the fact that once the poverty factor is taken away then teen violence disappears. He later adds, “That if America wants to rid of juvenile violence than serious consideration needs to be given to the societally inflicted violence of raising three to 10 times more youth in poverty than other Western nations.” (Males p386)
The dramatic increase of gun violence in Chicago has many questioning the effectiveness of state policies and police tactics. For many Chicagoans, gun violence is a common occurrence and this would not be the first time in which a big spike has been observed. In fact, Chicago was doing well overall in each crime category until recently in 2016, when they ended the year with 762 homicides victims that were gun related. Towards the end of 2016, Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago, had a press conference with the communities at the Malcom X College. He goes into detail of how he hopes to see a sharp decline on the heavy issue of gun violence surrounding their city. It’s an issue in which the mayor says will only work through a combined effort of its
The presence of gang violence has been a long lasting problem in Philadelphia. Since the American Revolution, gangs have been overpopulating the streets of Philadelphia (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). Most gangs in history have been of lower class members of society, and they often are immigrants into the U.S (Teen Gangs, 1996). Gangs provided lower class teens to have an opportunity to bond with other lower class teens. However over time, the original motive of being in a gang has changed. In the past, gangs used to provide an escape for teens to express themselves, let out aggression, and to socialize with their peers. It was also an opportunity for teens to control their territory and fit in (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). In the past, authorities would only focus on symptoms of gang violence and not the root. They would focus on arresting crime members instead of preventing gang violence. Gangs are beginning to expand from inner-city blo...
Measures of prevention or intervention that can be taken include creating early prevention programs, collaboration between the school, police, and parents, and policy measures. Programs that focus on increasing positive interactions with peers and encourage self esteem can help deter a child from a lifestyle susceptible to gang recruiting later in life (Simon, Ritter, and Mahendra, 2013). Such programs are vital in the school environment, where a youth spends most of his/her day. Schools must take note of the common signs of a youth with a high risk of becoming a gang member, for instance, poor grades and performance, and social rejection in the form of being bullied or being the bully. Moreover, schools should offer programs that raise awareness
Americans are faced with a huge problem of violence in the streets, these streets have become a place where old people are beaten for their social security checks, where little women are attacked and raped, where teen aged thugs shoot it out for some turf to sell their illegal drugs, and finally where small children everyday are caught in the way of bullets during drive by shootings. We try to ignore the criminals in our society and how they hurt it, but we shouldn’t. We should take actions to stop these acts of crazy people. And people try, but the hard work of some misguided individuals to stop the legal ownership of guns doesn’t really affect the problem at all, and takes the guns from the innocent citizens, who simply want means of self defense.
School shootings, gang violence, drive by shootings, murder, and thousands of acts of violence are committed every day. Members of our society criticize their own people for this violence while they continue to sit back and do nothing about it. These acts of violence have many contributing factors. Violence in our country today is escalating because we don't control the distribution of the guns sold. There are not enough restrictions on guns sold legally. The illegal purchase of guns through the black market is out of control. There is not enough education on the usage and storage of guns.
Now, from 1988 to 1998, California was considered the “Decade of death” as over 1000 people would die in Los Angeles per year. And that’s just Los Angeles never mind the entire State of California. Now it has declined from the years of 2008 to 2012 where violence, in general, has dropped by 16 percent. But even with that drop, it seems that California has a big issue in containing gang violence. A place like Compton, California is known for its gang violence and even though they have had a 30 percent drop in gang-related crimes. And the city of Los Angeles gang-related crimes has dropped by 66 percent since 2005. But if you do the math there is still about 500 gang related crimes a year which is too many. In 2002 to help fix the situation former NYC police chief William J. Bratton added 1000 more cops to patrol the city of Los Angeles.
In order to impede mass acts of violence one must look at the root cause and fix what caused the person to commit such acts of violence, and create change