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Sociological factors of criminality
How culture influence behaviour and personality
How culture influence behaviour and personality
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Article Summary and Response Name Institution Date In the article “Black men in Public Space,” the author Brent Staples narrates how he has been mistaken for a criminal several times bruise he was African American. In this story, he recalls his first victim a young white-woman he scare on a deserted street in Hyde Park. The author argues that in other occasion he would see people black, white, female, or even male hammering down the doors of their cars since they thought he was a mugger.
David Feige is no stranger to the system. His book is merely a condensed version of the reality behind both life in the Bronx and life in the criminal justice system. It becomes apparent very early on that one is doomed, even when given a decent judge. Feige basically condemns the system for virtual inability to win.
This article demonstrates how Bill Bratton, as the Commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD) from 1994 to 1996, William J. Bratton fought crime throughout the city of Ney York with legendary achievement, leading a national revolution in attitudes toward policing. Bratton adopted a “broken windows”1 community policing strategy of zero tolerance for minor offenses and championed statistical analysis to prevent crimes before they occurred. In the 70s and 80s, as Bratton continued his career in policing, institutional theories seemed dominant. Nixon’s brand of “tough-on-crime” and “law and order” conservatism meant that community relations were largely ignored by police. In 1982, James Wilson sought to re-establish some balance.
Change. What causes it? People change when they realize who they are and who they want to be. They change because of the people around them, how they react to a situation at hand, and to become who they want to be. People change based on the people around them, they may adapt and become them or they may realize that’s not them and become the opposite.
There one meets and dines with the truly great killers of the age, but only the quirkily fastidious are offended, for the killers are urbane and learned gentlemen who discuss their work with wit and charm and know which tool to use on the escargots. On New York's East Side one occasionally meets a person so palpably evil as to be fascinatingly irresistible. Such freedom, it was probably inevitable that many of them would yield to the worst instincts, and many do, and not only in New York. Most cities keep the evidence out of the center of town. In New York, a concatenation of economics, shifting real estate values and subway lines has worked to turn the rock over and put the show on display in the middle of town.
The modern society allows and encourage people to own their different thinking and ideas and this tendency makes very diverse environment. However, the same characteristics of the environment are still existing and influence people who live in this place in same way. In Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Ride and Fall of New York City Crime”, discusses about how Bernie Goetz changed his behavior after being assaulted and affected by the situation he lived in while he was robbed, which mainly reflects how environment and dangerous situation changed human beings’ minds and behaviors. The other author Leslie Bell focus on the the different situations for young women and their different reactions in “Sections from Hard
In Alex Kotlowitz’s book, There Are No Children Here, he explains the challenges and hardships a family faces growing up in the Henry Horner projects through social construct. Throughout the book, the social constructs are based off social class, discrimination, poverty, and social location. Due to where ones family is raised or comes from, their location influences ones decisions, in which may cause them to lead a life of crime. My beliefs, after completing the book, were reaffirmed. Those living in a social class below poverty, have a harder time “making it” then someone who lives on a nicer side of town.
Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.
Crime is often found in every society. Why? Theorist argues that: crime occurs because members of society find it hard to comply with rules of behavior or they get a self-fulfillment breaking it. Crime/deviance can be an indication that an area needs attention. Also, it can bring about solidarity or togetherness in society.
In the book Inside the Criminal Mind by Stanton Samenow, the idea that criminals commit crimes because of the environment or mental illness is an undying speculation. For instance, in the song “Gee, Officer Krupke” excuses are a thrown out for bad behavior, “delinquents were punks because their dads were drunks. They’re misunderstood rather than no good” (41). The juvenile's behavior is look at as more of a psychological or sociological problem than an actual crime. Adversities in life are unavoidable, these everyday struggles can be looked at as motivation or degradation.
Contrary to the common belief, crime has been on the decline for the past three decades. Yet, news and media have been covering crime more than ever, resulting in the public belief that crime is at an all time high. The sharp drop in crime since the early 1990s has left experts curious to discover the reasons for the decrease in crime. As I compare the article Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do Not by Steven D. Levitt and the article Evaluating Contemporary Crime Drop(s) in America, New York City, and Many Other Places by Eric P. Baumer and Kevin T. Wolff, I will briefly describe the articles, compare their agreements and disagreements, as well as discuss my personal preferences.
This is done as people desire fitting in and being sociable is a desired trait. These habits become like instincts in society and gain more power. Social change occurs gradually rather than immediately through a contract or government policy change. This occurs over time and forms major social institutions. This also explains the four stage theory that portrays gradual changes to government from hunters to shepherds, agriculture, and then commerce.
That’s why we change ourselves. We try to fit in, or make an impression so we don’t get embarrassed. Fear is what drives us to do some things sometimes. While everyone uses personality masks, we need to remember not to forget who we truly are. That means we can’t act completely different than how we would actually want all the time.
Although one’s behavior can be the same as others, especially if they are in the same setting, however those who are in two completely different contexts will experience different reactions, just dependent on exactly where they are. Furthermore, this theory demonstrates that once we have been in a specific setting long enough, then that’s when our behaviors will become consistent over time. On the other hand, individuals might experience particular actions because they arrive at a specific setting, with an already preconceived idea of what to expect causing them to alter their behaviors based on their thoughts about the background. Another reason might be that we adjust our responses because we are unsure of how others might view or accept us being in their environments. Either way, individuals might not be aware of it, but once our surroundings change, then our behaviors is changed as
Behavior cannot be defined as permanent. It keeps changing overtime with regards to one’s social experiences and how they have developed as a person from birth through adulthood, although their personality and temperament may be more consistent as those are fairly hard to completely change and refine no matter how much a person wants to or a person should. Those can only be slightly altered so those aspects of their behavior can be found to be more consistent (Brief, 2015). So basically to sum it up, human behavior is the manner in which one conducts themselves which allows others to have an insight into the person’s mind, as to what the person’s attitudes, values, culture and beliefs are as these factors influence the way in which an individual behaves.
