Disciples or Deviants William J. Chambliss’s article “The Saints and the Roughnecks” analyzes two different high school gangs for disparities associated with the community’s perception of deviance due to social status, socioeconomic factors and the consequences of reinforcing social reputation. By underscoring the underlying aspects that shape the labels society assigned the boys including demeanor, visibility, and bias, the groups were described and compared in a parallel style to exhibit society’s role in developing or dismissing deviance. The juxtaposition of the Saints and the Roughnecks exhibited that while both in-groups committed criminal acts, the members of the Saints gang engaged in sociological face-work and were not subject to …show more content…
The labels of each of the groups can initially be attributed to the gangs’ names: Saints refer to the group that the society protected and perceived as boys just having fun, and the derogatory slang term Roughnecks implies that the group similar to Rednecks are rural, poor deviant individuals. In addition to the formal labeling, the societal-reaction approach focuses on the actions of authority figures in the boys’ lives, for instance, the cops constantly threatened the Roughnecks with charges of loitering, whereas they gave the Saints the benefit of the doubt. Both the perspectives of police officers and teachers’ (agents of socialization) influenced the identity of the gangs and emphasized the deviance of the Roughnecks developing generalizations of the members of the group. Although the Saints were never arrested in concordance with the prejudices of the labeling theory, they participated in the same illegal activities as the Roughnecks- some of which can be classified as more severe- including the removal of road barricades and driving under the influence, however society considered these acts juvenile or victimless crimes. While the study does not explain the acceptance of the labels or the ability of certain individuals to escape the stigma, Chambliss’ study exhibits the influence that individuals with power or authority encompass that can shape the definitions of deviance and categorical labeling of individuals as disciples and deviants starting at a young
The police treat the Saints as if they did nothing wrong. They might give them a slap on the wrist instead of the punishment for the crimes they did. The police thought of the Saints as leaders of the youth in the community.
Boyz N the Hood is a classic film for African American culture and depicts juvenile delinquency in the tough streets of L.A. They can relate all too well to the situations these three best friends went through. To apply this movie to the life-course perspective and strain theories we have to analyze these three boy’s realities from a structural, social and cultural level to determine why they ended up deviant and they way they started off. Sampson and Laub’s theory was, criminal activity as well as elements preventative of crime, change throughout the life-course. While all of the criminals have some form of a shared beginning. While Merton’s strain theories revolve around five different types, that puts people into certain categories; conformity,
This book review covers Policing Gangs in America by Charles Katz and Vincent Webb. Charles Katz has a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, while Vincent Webb has a Ph.D. in Sociology, making both qualified to conduct and discuss research on gangs. Research for Policing Gangs in America was gathered in four cities across the American Southwest; Inglewood, California, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona. This review will summarize and discuss the main points of each chapter, then cover the relationship between the literature and class discussions in Introduction to Policing and finally it will note the strengths and weaknesses of book.
The story of the Saints and the Roughnecks shows how great the impact that appearance, background, and action can have on a reputation following the future. While both groups participated in deviant behavior only one (the Roughnecks) were perceived as bad within the community and received punishment. Several sociology theories offer explanations as to why this came to be with each giving a twist on how human perception can be misleading in such events.
William J. Chambliss’ article “The Saints and the Roughnecks” show the two sides of these groups doing about the same thing and how the society looks at those actions. The Saints are looked upon as good, while the Roughnecks are the “troublemakers”. Saints are what we call the prep people and the Roughnecks are the people who have less than everybody else. Throughout this conflict it is presented mostly as well of course conflict theory and the labeling theory. The conflict theory is when there is a result of competition and social inequality of the haves and have nots. The labeling theory is the theory of once labeled as deviant, become more deviant and is the master status. Although in the article “The Saints and the Roughnecks” by Chambliss,
The movie The Boondock Saints provides an excellent example of positive deviance through innovation. The Social theory of deviance can easily explain the brothers’ actions. The movie can be used to study deviance as the brothers kill people who are mafia members, breaking the norms of society. Even though the acts they are committing are clearly illegal and deviant, the people of South Boston do not react in a negative way. Since the Social theory is very broad, it will be easier to look at the brother’s acts under three sub theories: Labeling, Conflict and Strain theories.
This paper presents how labeling theory and strain theory can explain the crimes that the White family from West Virginia commit on a daily basis. The wonderful White of West Virginia portrays corruption and poverty. They do not conform to any authority or rules; all they want to do is fuss, fight and party. The White family takes part in shoot-outs, robberies, gas huffing, drug dealing, pill popping and murders. They are famously known for their Hill Billy tap dancing and wild criminal ways.
"Native American Involvement in the Gang Subculture." Community Corrections. Community Corrections Institute, July 13. Web. 02 Apr. 14.
Many have attempted to explain gang involvement in today's society. However, there is an underlying activity of youth joining gangs that does not seem to have enough media coverage or thorough explanations. As the name suggests, youth gang membership is about the juvenile population creating and joining gangs. Research indicates that youth gang membership exists in contemporary north America (Bernburg et al. 2006; aLilly et al. 2011; Maclure and Sotelo 2004; Sims 1997; Wiley et al. 2013; Yoder et al. 2003). This paper will examine the factors associated with youth gang membership using Karl Marx's conflict theory and labeling theory in comparison. Although conflict theory helps explain why a troublesome economy and coming from a low-socioeconomic status contributes to gang involvement, the theory has its limitations. On the other hand, labeling theory is unable to fully explain youth gang involvement based on the aforementioned factors. That being said, it can give a better explanation based on the factor of government intervention in the lives of citizens such as the context of stop-and-frisk which lead to unwarranted searches.
In his research Jay Macleod, compares two groups of teenage boys, the Hallway Hangers and the Brothers. Both groups of teenagers live in a low income neighborhood in Clarendon Heights, but they are complete opposites of each other. The Hallway Hangers, composed of eight teenagers spend most of their time in the late afternoon or early evening hanging out in doorway number 13 until very late at night. The Brothers are a group of seven teenagers that have no aspirations to just hang out and cause problems, the Brothers enjoy active pastimes such as playing basketball. The Hallway Hangers all smoke, drink, and use drugs. Stereotyped as “hoodlums,” “punks,” or “burnouts” by outsiders, the Hallway Hangers are actually a varied group, and much can be learned from considering each member (Macleod p. 162). The Brothers attend high school on a regular basis and none of them participate in high-risk behaviors, such as smoke, drink, or do drugs.
Albert Cohen’s book Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang was the first attempt for Cohen to solve the problem of how delinquent subcultures could begin (Williams & McKay, 2014). Cohen found that delinquent behavior was found among the lower class white males and the most common form was called gangs (Williams & McKay, 2014). Gangs were characterized by the behavior that was nonutilitarian which was no reason for doing something, malicious an individual was just mean, and negativistic was to negate the middle class. Statues played an important role in the subculture theories, which status was a way to think of ourselves in reference to other people (Williams & McKay, 2014). Cohen said “everyone wants status but not everyone can compete for stat...
This paper is designed to provide an in depth analysis on why youth join gangs through the comparison of different criminological theories. In this paper, I argue that social disorganization theory can explain poorly structured education and low socioeconomic status, while labeling theory can explain poorly structured education and low socioeconomic status as reasons why youth join gangs. This paper compares the relative strengths and weaknesses of social disorganization theory and labeling theory and I argue that social disorganization theory offers the most compelling theoretical perspective to account for how these factors influence youth to join gangs. I also argue that unlike the other two theories, a Marxist approach deals with the issue
From the mid 1950 gangs start to be a real problem in US, and in particular in several cities like Chicago. There was immediat response in form of labelisation by a local press and the gangs were assigned a particular image, of a poor, unsitisfied with their social milieu youth. Like stated in Diamond “ local press gave them the nick names, like “ gang feuds” “grudge killings” “ gang complexes”, “feelings of inadequacy” , “ new teen age terrorism” they were seens as a “Rebel without cause” ( Dean quotted in Diamond” ), all this confirm the rincipal quotation for this question and general thoughts of Adamson, as well insist on the structural construction of gang epidemic. Diamond confirms also Adamson statement on point of the white predominance amoung the juvenile delenquency, by stipulating them having “predominantly white face” (Diamond, 2009) in
In the book “The Gang: A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago,” by Frederic M. Thrasher, the main topic of this book is on older generations of gangs in America. Gangs and some types of gang cultures have been around for centuries. The book talks about how gangs were geographically shaped, and those poor neighborhoods had a higher rate of producing or influencing gangs to emerge. Around 1,313 gangs were discovered in the streets and areas of Chicago, Illinois. The gangs contained approximately 25,000 members that were a mixture of young men and boys.
Labeling increases crime when deviance becomes ones self-fulfilling prophecy; once he has lost hope and feels as though there are no ways to go back and reintegrate into the society without being stigmatized is when he chooses crime as his life time career path. But labeling can help to reduce crime rates if it brings a promising rehabilitation and support in rare cases. Even though most labeled criminals are not given a second chance but there can be events where the trajectory of crime ends and heads to some prosperity and growth, such as the case in The Saint and Roughnecks where Jack and Herb received recognition and scholarships for their hard work as an athlete from colleges. As observed by Chambliss, they both accepted this reintegration to society and shortly after became honorable members of community.