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Lower Class Culture As A Generating Milieu Of Gang Delinquency Summary

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Walter B. Miller wrote an essay entitled, “Lower Class Culture as a Generating Milieu of Gang Delinquency,” in which he presents a theory regarding the cause of unlawful behavior in lower class communities. This theory involves six focal concerns: trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, fate, and autonomy. Through this essay, Miller attempts to explain the behavior of gang members, specifically those from lower-class communities. In this essay, I will provide in-depth explanations regarding Miller’s focal concerns and how they relate to the film Carlito’s Way
One focal concern that Miller explores is “smartness.” This does not refer to book smarts, but rather to street smarts: when individuals in gangs outwork and outsmart one another, see the bigger picture, and can predict what is going to happen in a certain situation. In Miller’s words, it is “the concomitant capacity to avoid being outwitted, ‘taken,’ or duped oneself. With that “Minimum use of Physical Effort”. (miller) Miller explains, at length, that this means that gang members can take what they want from others without becoming physically violent.
Another focal concern is “toughness.” Toughness essentially means that when gangs are hanging out on a street corner, they won’t back down from …show more content…

Excitement is when a gang goes to a different area to do things they usually do in their own neighborhood. They go looking for trouble, and they engage in gambling, sex, or fighting. One can call it a “night on the town.” According to Miller: “Many of the most characteristic features of lower class life are related to the search for excitement or “thrill.” Involved here are the highly prevalent use of alcohol by both sexes and the widespread use of gambling of all kinds.”(Miller) Excitement can be very dangerous, because gangs go to unfamiliar neighborhoods and start trouble, and they are just looking for an adrenaline

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