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James Bulger's Criminological Theory

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To be quite honest, I have never heard of James”Whitey” Bulger, and I was born and raised in the city of Boston. My family has resided in Boston since the early 1970’s and they have never mentioned him. Therefore, in order to write this paper and actually know who is James “Whitey” Bulger, I watched the recent film Black Mass which is based on his story. I found the Bulger story to be quite terrifying and unbelievable, I believe the film did a great job portraying his life as a gangster in Boston. Bulger story gives a perfect demonstration of the criminological theories we have discussed in class. I find that Bulger story best represents the disorganization theory of Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, although, it lacks the representation of Travis Hirschi's self control theory. Unlike his brother William “Billy” Bulger, who turned out to be a successful politician, lawyer, and educator, James Bulger was involved with criminal acts since he was a young lad. Although, they were both born and raised in South Boston, a dangerous and unstable …show more content…

Most crimes, they argue, are simple to commit, require no long-term planning, and provide few long-term benefits. In addition, this theory implies that individuals who were inadequately parented before the age of eight develop less self-control than individuals of approximately the same age who were raised with better parenting. Gottfredson and Hirschi argue that parents must monitor their children, recognize bad behavior, and correct this bad behavior. If self-control has not developed by ages eight to ten, they argue, it is not likely to develop. As a result, research have indicated that low levels of self-control are relevant to criminal and impulsive

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1. Born into an Catholic Irish-American family of six children and two low class working parents, James "Whitey" Bulger didn't waste any time before ensuing his career in crime. Growing up as a young kid Whitey always had dreams of "running away with the circus" and he did just that at the age of 10. He began to get into street fights and stealing and quickly at the age of 13 was when he was first charged and arrested for delinquency and stealing. Things would only escalate from here.

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When James “Whitey” Bulger appeared in court for the first time in June of 2013, one would never know that he was once the most feared criminal in Boston. At 84 years old, Bulger “shuffled into a federal courthouse” like “a dinosaur in an orange jumpsuit.” (McMorrow 1) After 16 years of escaping the wrath of the FBI, Bulger was finally being put on trial for his long list of heinous crimes including 11 murders, money laundering, weapon violations, and racketeering. (McMorrow 1) However, even more shocking than his convictions was the relationship Bulger had with the FBI, which unraveled before the eyes of the court and people across the country.

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James “Whitey” Bulger could just be considered another troubled soul caught up in the wrong things, but he is one of America's most notorious and ruthless mob bosses. From 1975 to 1990, he served as an informant, tipping off the police and giving information about La Cosa Nostra, an Italian gang, while building his own crime network. After fleeing Boston in 1995, Bulger landed on the "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list and lead the FBI on a sixteen year manhunt. Hailing from South Boston, Whitey entered a lifetime of crime at a young age and had become a prominent figure in Boston's organized crime scene by the late 1970s. James Joseph Bulger Jr. was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts on September 3, 1929 - a month before the stock market crash.

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Little did MacDonald know that Bulger’s associates were watching Frank in the ring, and waiting to recruit him. Frank was later killed after a failed armed robbery. Bulger stole one of the few positive role models the children of Southie had, corrupting yet another generation of Southie’s

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Black Mass, the Johnny Depp fronted biopic about the life of notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, has been one of the big successes of the fall season so far. It opened strong at the box office, raking in a$31 million in its first week, and has put Depp in serious conversation for the best actor trophy at next year 's Academy Awards. The movie is clearly a bonafide success, but how different would Bulger 's story be if Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were the ones who told it?

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The murder of James Bulger prompted a media frenzy, not only on a national scale but also internationally, the pre-trial coverage was extremely extensive there was arguments that the juries opinions would be biased due to the opinions outputted via the media and public. Although the judge had agreed the coverage of the trial was beyond ordinary, it was agreed that it was acceptable for the hearing to undergo with the jury (Guardian, 2001). The UK media coverage of the crime had deeply affected the trial due to public opinion. The media vilified Venables and Thompson excessively, only the day after the judgement, the tabloid, the Daily Star headlined quoting ‘How do you feel now you little bastards?’

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There theory states that if a person has low self control they are more likely to commit crime. Characteristics of low self control according to Gottfredson and Hirschi are seeking immediate gratification, look for easy way to satisfy desires, enjoys acts that are exciting, risky, or thrilling, lack personal stability, low frustration tolerance, and is self centered or insensitive. Also according to Gottfredson and Hirschi people lacking in self-control are more likely to experience problems in social relationships, such as marriage and they are likely to use drugs and abuse alcohol. Bulger in his early childhood had wanted to join the circus the easiest way for him to do this was to run away from home and find a circus so thats exactly what he did. Bulger can also been seen throughout his whole life trying to find things that were either risky or exciting in his early childhood he at only 14 committed serious crimes.

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Most of his early crimes occurred after his parent's divorce. Self-control theory emphasizes that low self-control becomes about due to the absence of socialization patterns from his parents and the lack of attention. Therefore, Dahmer's behavior caused his decision-making to become inhibited and the lack of consequences for deviant behavior minimized the costs. To expand on this, the essay "Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer" by Nicholas Zeigler, states that lack of self-control comes from poor parenting and is marked by an abusive childhood, (Zeigler, 2007). Ziegler explains that self-control is fully established in the fifth grade, stabilizing around the ages of 10 to 12, (Ziegler, 2007).

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Initially, peer and family influences can greatly contribute to children committing juvenile acts. Mandel states “there are parents who give

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This theory clearly rules out the effect of inherited or innate factors, and the last is the cognitive theory, which is based on how the perception of an individual is manifested into affecting his or her potential and capability to commit a crime. (Psychological theories of crime) Relating these theories to the case under study, it’s clear that the behaviour can be traced most times to faulty relationships in the family during the first years of

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Build upon Hirschi’s control theories, Sampson and Laub (1992) proposed Age-Graded Life-Course Theory by focusing on continuities and discontinuities in deviant behavior over time and on the social influences of age-graded transitions and salient life events. By analyzing the data of a longitudinal study of troubled boys in Boston (Gluck, 1940) with the follow-up studies, they found out that some of the delinquent boys stayed in trouble even when they are around 60-year-old; while others desist at some turning point. Because of the marriage, military services, jobs, school works or some other reasons, they quitted from delinquency and come back to the mainstream life. Therefore, their argument combined self-control (Gottfredson and Hirschi,

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Edwin H. Sutherland was the first theorist of the 20th Century to argue that criminal behavior was learned at the macro and micro levels (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). Sutherland’s theory lists nine components and they are used to explain street crimes as well as white-collar crimes, the term that he coined. The first component of his theory is that criminal behavior is learned, not inherited (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). I agree with Sutherland’s first theory that criminal behavior is learned, not inherited. I do believe that starting at any early age; children are predisposed to criminal behavior by watching their parents or friends act in criminal ways.

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It is assumed that a child will have seen their fair share of violence while young, but a loving parent’s touch will hopefully dull down any negative influence. But, during adolescence, the frequency of violence is easier to witness, and worse, commit. Antisocial and aggressive behaviors begin developing as early as preschool and elementary school. The coercion theory suggests that children who become juveniles happens when they are influenced by outer sources, like peer pressure and television.

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We all know that parents, since the child is born, are always by their child’s side since they share a same home and should be the one to monitor their children while he or she is growing up. David P. Farrington (Farrington, n.d) stated that family factor, poor parental child-rearing methods especially lack of guidance and control from parents, is the most common answer when people are asked about the main cause of crimes. Moreover, according to Lieb Roxanne (1994), family components can predict an early sign of delinquency. Some weak way of predictions are based on the socioeconomic status of the family, and the less affection of the child to parents. However, the lack of guidance and letting the child to feel being unwanted is a strong predictor or root of

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