The Stickup Kids Summary

Cloward and Ohlin’s differential opportunity theory can be used to describe the behaviors and events in the book, The Stickup Kids. Cloward and Ohlin’s theory is an integration of anomie and culture conflict theories. It states that delinquency is caused through strain, which is categorized by a sense of social injustice which is derived from blocked legitimate and illegitimate opportunities for success. In their theory, kids from lower socio-economic status families, especially marginalized groups, still buy into the idea of the ‘American dream’. However, coming from potentially rundown, crime ridden neighborhoods can block their access to legitimate opportunities to succeed, such as getting a quality education or getting to participate in

after-school programs and sports. Because of this, kids will then turn to illegitimate opportunities, such as selling drugs. However, the neighborhoods the kids live in, along with the available opportunities will determine the type of subculture formed. Cloward and Ohlin describe three subcultures types: criminal gangs, conflict gangs, and retreatist gangs.
First, let’s look at the kids described in the book, and how they began to value economic success and the ‘American dream’. Gus grew up in the South Bronx living with a family that idealized capitalism. His step-father and brother ran a profitable drug dealing business. He saw his brother drop out of school in order to be a part of the business. Gus said he recalls watching his step-father and brother bringing in and counting large sums of cash in front of him—this was normalized. He also witnessed the respect that his family members earned for being a part of this business. Because of this, Gus dropped out of school himself, knowing he could make better money in drugs. As for Pablo, he also grew up in the South Bronx. While he was able to go to college for football, he felt economic strain due to the lack of money provided by his mother. He too, eventually turned toward selling drugs to make cash. Selling drugs to make money was a normal occurrence in his family, as well. No one ever told him it wasn’t okay, and it made Pablo good sums of money very quickly.
Many of the youths in the South Bronx turned to selling drugs or other illegal pursuits to make money.

While they probably tried to follow conventional methods, at some point their opportunities were blocked which left them with a feelings of injustice which then turned them onto their illegal pursuits. For example, in high school Pablo showed great athletic ability in football. He was given a partial scholarship to play in college. However, he had grown up in the New York public schools system which didn’t have the resources that suburban schools did because they rely on money from property taxes. Because of this, Pablo was not able to keep up with his school work in college. His legal opportunity to make a living was blocked. This, plus the economic strain he felt showcase his overall strain and sense of injustice which led him to start selling drugs. He knew he needed money, and he saw how profitable it was for his friends. However, he was soon arrested which lost him his scholarships and ability to make a career out of

football.
Both Gus and Pablo, after facing blocked opportunities and strain, turned to selling drugs. They were able to so because Gus’s step father ran a well-organized and highly profitable drug business. According to Cloward and Ohlin, I would label this operation as a criminal gang. These gangs are described as being highly organized through adult criminals. In these gangs, crime is run like a business with the main goal being to make money safely. Salazar, Guy’s step-father, was the head of the cocaine business in their neighborhood. He was selling to drug dealers and even his own competitors. He worked with his son, Sylvio, with Gus and Pablo running the day-to-day operations. Salazar’s focus was maximizing profits, so while he would rather have had the kids pursue legal capitalistic ventures, he let them help sell the cocaine. The whole business was basically a family venture. This is exemplary of the close relationship Salazar had with the kids running his operation, which is a prominent part of a criminal gang, as well.
However, Gus and Pablo did not stay in Salazar’s criminal gang for long.

They decided they could make better money on their own. Eventually they teamed up with some other neighborhood kids and formed what seems to be something between a criminal and a conflict gang. Conflict gangs are typically made up of unskilled criminals who don’t have legitimate or illegitimate opportunities to succeed so they partake in risky, petty crime like gambling, robberies and other violent crimes. They are also not as organized as criminal gangs. Gus and Pablo, along with some others, later formed a stick-up, or robbery team. However, I argue that the drug robberies that the kids partake in is not unskilled or unorganized. For example, the robberies were always planned in advance. They had ‘the girl’ who would open the door for the guys, either literally or figuratively by getting close to the drug dealer and making him feel comfortable. Then the guys would use the element of surprise to shock and restrain the dealer. The dealer would often be tight lipped about the location of his drugs, so the guys would often have to resort to torture in order to get the information. However, it was not just random, violent torture, it was thought out. There was a code between drug robbers to never kill someone. They knew the best torture techniques, like ironing someone’s back, but they agreed never to go as far as killing the dealer. While not all drug robberies went this exact way, they all seemed to

have a similar level of organization. There was also a hierarchy of man power, which translated into how each member got paid.
I don’t believe the book had a good example of a retreatist gang. These are gangs of unskilled individuals who have blocked access to legitimate and illegitimate opportunities so they have given up and taken to doing drugs. They are unorganized and blame themselves for their failures, overall.
In addition, I don’t believe this theory does a good job at describing the actions of Gus, Pablo and the others after the drug selling and robbing became less profitable in the South Bronx. As they grew older, the drug market in the neighborhood changed and the group was no longer making the same amount of money as they previously had. Pablo actually tried to start a branch of a pyramid scheme to the neighborhood in order to make money. This didn’t end up playing out, however. Both Gus and Pablo ended up becoming depressed and turning to religious to find answers.
Part B
An alternative perspective to explain the events and behaviors in The Stick up Kids, is Wilson’s structural view on the extremely disadvantaged. In this perspective on delinquent behavior, Wilson argues that increased economic and social isolation of marginalized groups along with current overt discrimination and historic discrimination of these groups has led to their criminal activities. While Wilson makes this case for black community in America, I think this can still apply to the Hispanic population portrayed in the book.
The South Bronx, where Gus and Pablo grew up, used to be a thriving middle class New York borough. During World War II, many immigrants came to this area for better lives and manufacturing jobs. However, many of the White middle-class started to leave for suburban areas after the immigrant influx. Streets and bridges were put up in design to cage in these impoverished minority groups. Things went even further downhill once our economy started to change from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. New York factories began to close down and thousands of jobs were lost. Manufacturing jobs had been perfect for unskilled workers, they were taught easy to learn jobs that required little skill but could earn them livable wages. However, after the economic shift, there was little place for these workers. Many of these people didn’t have a quality enough education to get the types of jobs that paid well. Because of this, these workers had to turn to low paid, usually part-time service work like fast food. Families could not be supported on these jobs alone, however. Which led some people to look for alternative means to make ends meet.
Gus’s mom emigrated from the Dominican Republic before he was born. She came to America looking for better work. She moved in with her sister in a small apartment in South Bronx. She didn’t have the education or skills necessary to obtain a higher paying job within the service economy. She was only able to find work in sweatshop with minimal pay. She ended up marring Salazar, a Columbian emigrant who worked as a dishwasher at a local restaurant. On the side, however, he ran a cocaine operation. He also did not have the education or skills to get a better paying job, and he saw cocaine as an alternative to these harsh conditions. As his kids became older, he employed them in his operation, as well. Both Gus and his older brother had started going to school, but eventually dropped out to pursue working with Salazar, instead. It would make them more money than any other job they could currently be hired for, and it gained them respect and prestige within the neighborhood, as well.
Pablo’s mother also emigrated from the Dominican Republic. However, she was able to secure a job in a factory and as a restaurant cook. She eventually earned a full time cook position and was able to save enough money to buy a house on a quiet, residential neighborhood. This was a good neighborhood for Pablo—one with minimal crime and other children to play with. However, Pablo’s mother was soon unable to afford the house and they had to move back to the South Bronx. While she tried to set her kids up with a positive social environment, ultimately, she was unable to sustain this life because she was unable to afford it, even working full-time. The historical system of discrimination toward minority groups, like Hispanic emigrants, made it made it so she was destined to stay caged in the impoverished South Bronx which was riddled with crime. As mentioned early, Pablo was a gifted football player, but was unable to sustain this as a career because of his lack of education. During his time at his impoverished public school, Pablo was written off. He was discriminated against as being a no-good from the ghetto. He was not given the skills needed to sustain his schoolwork through college and keep playing football. Instead, Pablo ended up back in the South Bronx to sell drugs. He saw the amount of money friends like Gus were making, and it was too good an opportunity to pass up.
Conclusion
I believe the explanation in part A, Cloward and Ohlin’s differential opportunity theory, is slightly better than part B, Wilson’s structural view. I believe that historical and institutional discrimination has had a part in building the criminal and gang structure that is described in the South Bronx. However, I believe Cloward and Ohlin’s ideas about blocked legitimate and illegitimate opportunities does a better job at describing more of the behaviors of Gus, Pablo and their robbery gang.