What Is The Turning Point In Divergent Lives

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In Chapters six and seven of Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives by John Laub and Robert Sampson, the lives of numerous men are shared and analyzed. The authors use life history interviews as well as crime history to help explain their theory. They interviewed these men various times throughout their lives, from a very young age up until age seventy. In Chapter six, Laub and Sampson mention the lives of a few men who have turned to desistance, or stopping, in committing crime. There were two subgroups, “nonviolent desisters” and “violent desisters”. These men had tough upbringings, living in deteriorated homes in Boston. Their parents were not supportive and showed little interest in parenting. Throughout the chapter, the men mentioned various turning points that occurred in their lives in which turned them to becoming desistant to crime. The Glueck’s analyzed and interviewed three men. Leon, Henry, and Bruno were the men. Leon’s turning point for his desistance was his marriage. Henry’s turning point stemmed from his decision to enlist in the Marine Corps when he was eighteen. And for Bruno, he said that his turning point was attending The Lyman School for Boys. While the men stressed one specific turning point for them, all three mentioned how all three factors (marriage, the military, as …show more content…

Sutherland’s theory suggests that people learn to commit crime and deviant behaviors from others. His theory is similar to what is mentioned in the book. An example of this would be how Billy’s friends, who most of them were much older than he, would take him out on Saturdays to Dorchester and they would teach him “the art of snatching items” from convenience stores (155) Laub and Sampson agree with this theory of learning by association. It is important to see the correlation between peers and self and the values they share. Rather than be independent, the “learning offender” adopts the values of his

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