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Youth gangs and theory
Youth, gang, drug and violence
Essays over youth gangs
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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. In The Interrupters, Ameena Matthews, daughter of Jeff Fort, one of the biggest gang leaders, was involved in trafficking of illegal drugs. After she had children, she realized that this lifestyle was …show more content…
The acting was realistic and believable even through the intense fight scenes. The film was easy to follow and was clear. The viewer knows what is going on at all times and the purpose of this film is made apparent. This film has significance and relevance because there is still a huge amount of violence that occurs in the United States. This film can be inspirational to those civilians in these areas to help end gang activity and violence. This film was thorough—it provided three different examples of how someone can be helped and counseled. The Interrupters is similar to a film called Crash, which commentates on racism and violence in the inner cities as well. The motives behind the making of both of these films are the same. The Interrupters really focused on one social subject and that was culture. It enlightened the viewer on how gang violence is prevalent in the inner cities and how desensitized the population is to it, which is the culture thereof. Violence seems to be a social norm in these locations anymore. This movie helped viewers better understand the social problems of the inner cities and how to help. An example of this is how Ameena’s father was a gang leader; so naturally, Ameena was involved in similar affairs. This is just one example of the culture in large cities, amongst other
Jumped in by Jorja Leap is an autobiographical book about the experiences of a UCLA professor’s struggle to understand the lifestyle of gangs, and to figure out a way to end gang violence. Jorja Leap is an outsider looking at these communities from an intellectual sociological point of view, but she also has her personal biases shown. She stated in the book she is similar to an anthropologist, committing research specifically on gangs to comprehend their motivations. Her research leads her to interact with individuals that were or are affected by gang violence, whether they were the culprit or the victim. A large amount of the individuals she interviewed also want to end gang violence. These people know the negative effects that it has had on their communities and the suffering that it causes. These
CNN presents the documentary, Homicide in Hollenbeck, spotlighting gang activity in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollenbeck. This documentary explores the subculture of gangs existing within Hollenbeck from a several perspectives. The people documented include a mother who lost both of her sons to gang violence, a priest that has tried to help rehabilitate gang members, a police officer that has worked in Hollenbeck for five years in the gang unit, and a current gang member. For a conclusion, Homicide in Hollenbeck focuses on a juvenile exposed to gang life on the cusp of decided where they want their life to lead; gangs or freedom. Problems attributed to the high rate of gang activity and number of gangs in Hollenbeck are the high poverty rate, low employment rate, and broken families that make up the majority of Hollenbeck. The crime most discussed, as per the title of the documentary, is homicide The number of gang related homicides has risen even though the criminal behavior of gangs has ultimately decreased in the neighborhood. In order to fight the overwhelming gang presence, the police believe in increasing the amount of gun power on the streets and number of jailed gang members. The priest who runs Homeboy Industries stated that he feels most gang members are just young men who can’t get out of the gang life. With more funds and opportunities, he thinks the problem could be decreased. In the end, the documentary mentions that the FBI has formed a gang center where local law enforcement agencies can share information to gain more knowledge and to better fight the presence of gangs.
Boyz N the Hood was a film created to convey an anti-gang message as well as to provide societal members an in-depth look at life in “the hood” so he or she can expand their culturally awareness of identifying societal issues (Stevenson, 1991). Upon the debut of “Boyz N the Hood” violence erupted at theaters across the nation, resulting in multiple shows pulling the film from scheduled showings to alleviate future violent behaviors (Stevenson, 1991). The film profoundly illustrates the realty of the events revealed within the storyline that frequently occur on a daily basis within every impoverish community; however, is overlooked by the individuals who are not directly involved and or affected (Leon-Guerrero, 2016) Children of lower socioeconomic status often are raised in ghetto neighborhoods where they often witness, crime, violence, gang activity, abuse, and drugs (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). Ghetto communities envelop tumultuous cycles of violence and substance abuse creating a pervasive occurrence within the residents of the community. This is prevalent in lower developed communities that unfortunately many children and the youth populace indirectly inherit and sadly conform to, as there are no other means to an end for them (Leon-Guerrero,
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
The documentary, The Interrupters, is a film that tells the ongoing journey of three ‘violence interrupters’ who’s goals are to stop and prevent violence from their South Side Chicago, Illinois neighborhoods, which they once took part of. An interesting aspect of this film is that Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams and Eddie Bocanegra, the three ‘violence interrupters’, reflect on their experiences with violence in the streets of Chicago in order to better help these young men and women avoid the community violence. These three ‘violence interrupters’ work intensely with a number of people (mostly young adults) who are prone to acting out and violent behavior.
The movie Crash educates the viewers on the effects of racism, and the negativity it places in our society. The interpersonal communication that was played out throughout the movie, made me more conscientiously aware, of how I interact with different ethnicities, so as not to offend
For my final paper I choose to sociologically analyze the book Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh. Newsweek describes Gang Leader for a Day as being “Compelling…dramatic…Venkatesh gives readers a window into a way of life that few Americans understand.” (Newsweek) Gang Leader for a Day tells the story of a young sociologist named Sudir Venkatesh and his search for answers to poverty problems in the urban projects. After being constantly warned of which areas not to visit, Venkatesh decided to ignore all the forewarnings and goes and walks into Lake Park Projects, to conduct surveys for his professor. On his trip into the projects Venkatesh ends up meeting a gang leader named J.T. After spending the night in the projects Venkatesh is allowed to leave after J.T. states “You shouldn’t go around asking them silly-a** questions —- With people like us, you should hang out, get to know what they do, how they do it. No one is going to answer questions like that .You need to understand how young people live on the streets.” (2008 : 21) From that day on Venkatesh would come to end up befriending J.T and spending almost all of his time in the projects. It isn’t until J.T gets relocated to the notorious Robert Taylor Housing that the real study begins. Over the next seven years Venkatesh would not only gather information from J.T but, also befriend everyone from the other neighborhood dealers, crackheads, squatters, prostitutes, pimps, activists, cops, organizers, and officials. Through his time spent with the residents and officials of the Robert Taylor Homes Venkatesh not only was able to gain insight on the day to day life of...
All in all, the film Crash was an eye opener. Although some scenes quiet drastic, viewers were able to see Americas hidden truths. Not only did we witness racism and prejudices through one lens, but through multiple lens. For example, Anthony and Peter discuss their issues with Caucasians, the pawn shop owner battles with Farad, and Mrs. Cabot angrily confesses her feelings towards African Americans men. This learner is now aware of different cultures and racial struggles. This learning will keep in mind that cultural awareness is vital tool for the field of social work. Great
"Mrs. Robinson, you are trying to seduce me," says Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman). The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols in 1967 is an influential satire/comedy film about a recent East Coast college graduated who finds himself alienated and aimless in the changing, social and sexual general public of the 1960s, and questioning the values of society. The theme of the film is of an innocent and confused youth who is exploited, mis-directed, seduced (literally and figuratively) and betrayed by a corrupt, self-indulgent, and discredited older generation (that finds stability in “plastics”) that I found to be quite clear and understanding, while also capturing the real spirit of the times and allows America's youth to perceive onscreen an image of themselves which they can both identify with and emulate. The Graduate is a significant film even today due to its use of abstract camera angles, telephoto lenses, excellent cinematography, and great acting. Few visual effects were used, however, matting and numerous point of view shots were used. These characteristics and the fabulous use of mis-en-scene, great writing and the era of the film all made The Graduate what it is today, magnificent.
This paper will cover issues that young minorities encounter in the movies; Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008), Gran Torino (2008), A Better Life (2011). Movies will be summarize, and compare and contrast youths experienced. Criminological theories shall be utilized to further elaborate issues. Finally steps and theories will be utilized towards solving issues, also possible methods to correct the issues will be addressed in the end.
The movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is based in the 1970s. It depicts the highly male dominated broadcast team and shows the shake up when a woman is hired as a reporter and has aspirations of becoming an anchor the television station. The particular scene shows Ron Burgundy is flustered because Veronica Coringstone is impeding on his masculinity. Burgundy exemplifies hegemonic masculinity by explaining he is a man and a professional, when Coringstone says he his acting like a baby he takes offense and explains he is a man and he his ultimately better than a women because indeed he is a man. Burgundy states, “'I’m a man who discovered the wheel, and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a 1/3 the size of us...It's science (Robertson, McKay, 2004). The clip also depicts Burgundy’s desire for Coringstone to be the typical submissive female he is used to. The articles will identify the gender stereotypes and access if they are true or false based on the research.
The film The Liberator portrays the life of Simon Bolivar, an influential activist in the revolutions against the Spanish Empire in South America. The movie does a great job in displaying the many aspects of Simon Bolivar, what he stood for and the way he felt towards his people. Like the majority of films this The Liberator has its flaws.
The much praised and Oscar winning film Crash presents an uncompromising insight into what is considered to be a modern and sophisticated society. The film challenges viewers to examine the issues of race, gender and ethnicity and to which extent they plague society even now, thirteen years after it’s theatrical release.
According to Frederick Thrasher, gangs are characterized by a large amount of transience, great numbers of immigrant youth, poor living conditions, and a state of social disorganization. Both Vicky and her sister were part of poor living conditions, social disorganization, and family
For this assignment, the movie “The Help” was chosen to review and analyze because it presents a story of fighting injustice through diverse ways. The three main characters of the movie are Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a young white woman, Aibileen Clark, and Minny Jackson, two colored maids. Throughout the story, we follow these three women as they are brought together to record colored maids’ stories about their experiences working for the white families of Jackson. The movie explores the social inequalities such as racism and segregation between African Americans and whites during the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi.