For many youths, gang life is all they know. Many gang members have other family members who are involved in gangs already. In Lauger’s (2012) ethnography of the DFW boyz, he found
During his time studying these boys, he found that most cases of conflict were resolved without the use of weapon(s), but rather with “harsh conversation”. This observation highly contradicts the typical view of gang members who are commonly stereotyped by their local community and justice system in Oakland. Rios describes how the boys “Conversations often involved references to guns as analogies for resolving conflict and demonstrating manhood”. The fact that most conflicts are dealt with in non-violent ways, highlights the negative role
How well Wes Moore describes the culture of the streets, and particularly disenfranchised adolescents that resort to violence, is extraordinary considering the unbiased perspective Moore gives. Amid Moore’s book one primary theme is street culture. Particularly Moore describes the street culture in two cities, which are Baltimore and the Bronx. In Baltimore city the climate and atmosphere, of high dropout rates, high unemployment and poor public infrastructure creates a perfect trifecta for gang violence to occur. Due to what was stated above, lower income adolescent residents in Baltimore are forced to resort to crime and drugs as a scapegoat of their missed opportunities.
Also, from my observation of the author’s interaction with the gang members, he acted in a way, that was out of respect, and in no way condemning of the gang members or their culture. He befriended them and truly showed great interest in their personal lives. He also knew that he couldn’t’ approach these gang members in a hostile manner, as he learned this from a gang member, who stated that “You can’t just walk into the neighborhood and act like a tough guy, you get beat up.” Moreover, I also observed that the author seemed mild mannered, and certainly did not come across as this know it all, arrogant researcher. I can only imagine how scary this entire experience may have been for him, but nonetheless, he allowed himself to “hang around” the gang members as they drove him around their dangerous neighborhood.
In addition, it is important to study the gang dynamic that involve the activities that they are involved in such as drug trafficking, fire arm offences among
Subcultural theory can apply to the gang members that want to kill the Zavala and Taylor. Subcultural theory stresses that lower-class residents have certain focal concerns that they follow which include risk taking, being fearless, having street smarts, pursuit of thrill seeking, and their lives are controlled by things that they don’t have any control over with. Gabbidon and Greene (2016) say that one of the ideas of Wright’s Biosocial Thesis is that of collective social behavior which states that neighborhoods with high collective social behavior tend to have lower crime rates, and that in many black neighborhoods in inner cities there is almost no collective social behavior which makes those neighborhoods have higher crime rates. Within the movie it seems that officers Zavala and Taylor get to patrol neighborhoods that have lower social behavior. Subculture of violence theory stresses that within certain groups of subcultures there are groups that encourage or normalize violence in their lifestyle or community.
Criminal and conflict gang whose primarily intent of crimes for tangible gains. Social structure theorists consider that the main components to illegal behavior are the ascendancy of social and economic influences that are distinguished in rundown communities where the population is predominantly lower-class citizens (Siegel, 2010). This following theory goes into helping us comprehend ways the human behavior, is the result of physical
In the film, the presence of gang activity in the community goes unchecked, as fear and distrust inhibit residents from intervening or reporting criminal behavior. Social disorganization theory means that ecological differences in levels of crime are based on structural and cultural factors shaping the nature of the social order across communities. Since the movie was filmed in LA, which is a huge urban area that intersects with different areas and subcultures, all three young offenders in the movie lived in an environment that is a relatively disadvantaged neighborhood. In the background, it is normal to see highways and construction sites a lot, which is a sign of a high circulation of people around the area. This aligns with Shaw and McKay's theory of social disorganization, which emphasizes the breakdown of social control mechanisms in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Thomas describes how these gangs affect the youth in the community. Young people are drawn to gang life to cope with their surrounding environment. Young people are enticed by gang life to cope with the lack of opportunities to gain financial security
This study is the primary purpose of the book, and it consist of what towns were deliberated, how the gang unit controlled their gangs in each of their cities, and how this material was brought to their attention. This certain data was collected through field examination, conversations with members, and reading through documents. Chapter three goes on to talk about the “Historical Analysis of Gangs and Gang Control.” This part is essential to understanding each town’s past gang complications and how the police force responded to them around 1960 to 2000. The chapter is put into different subdivisions by city.
The blacks engage in crimes as it seems to be their only source of income. Those engage in criminal activities also desire to have order in their neighborhoods. This results to formation of closer ties between the criminals and the non-criminals based on residential stability and high home ownership rates. The residents in these neighborhoods are also most likely to prevent any efforts by law enforcers to curb the existing crimes amongst them. Boys and girls in the neighborhoods, especially the street oriented, lack hopes for the future and tend to live their lives on the edge.
In the 1990s, gang violence was on the rise, where it was dominantly founded in youths. Anderson, Dyson, and Lee (1996) argued that when a group of African American youths join together and commits delinquent acts and crime, they already categorized as gangs to the American public. This affect and many other affects is what creates an increase in gang violence. Those other factors are socioeconomic status, history, race, gendered, and geographic background. They play a huge role on the creation and formation of gangs.
This paper draws on existing sociological research in identifying a number of theories used in explaining the formation of gangs. The theories discussed are social structure theories, social conflict theory, and social process theories all of which highlight elements of strain in different forms as they relates to gang formation. According to Merton, (as cited in Schneider & Tilly, 2004) structural theories significantly emphasize the role of social and economic structures as the causes of delinquent behavior and tend to treat criminal behavior as the result of the undesirable and dysfunctional structures (P. 3.).
Miller’s article “Lower class culture as a generating milieu of gang delinquency” the focal concerns theory explain what each of the six focal concerns focuses on. Trouble in the focal concerns theory refers to the behavior of acting in a matter that brings conflict for the person with people in authority, such as police officer, as well as those in the middle class of society (Miller, W. B. 1958, pg.8). For men trouble tends to have a major focus on fighting, “sexual adventures with women”, and for women it represents sexual involvement that yield unwanted consequences, such as an unplanned pregnancy (Miller, W. B. 1958,
After he saw the inscription on the ring; Gandalf told Frodo that the ring that Frodo possesses is the Master ring; the One Ring who have power over the every other magic rings. He got the idea to put the ring on fire after he went to Gondor and read the Isildur’s scroll to find the truth about the ring. He remembered the word of Saruman concerning the ring, “The Nine, the Seven, and the Three had each their proper gem. Not so the One. It was round and unadorned, as it were one of the lesser rings; but its maker set marks upon it that the skilled, maybe, could still see and read.”
