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Views On Gangs From Different Sociological Perspectives And Theories

743 Words3 Pages

Emily Herman
Soc 101
Garth
31 March, 2015
Viewpoints on Gangs Gangs have been thought to be tyrants for many years. To most people all they can see are kids or adults who are nothing but criminals. However, no one really stops to think of the reasoning’s behind why a person may join a gang. Instead everyone sees what they want to see and nothing else. With this in mind, based on the perspectives people take, there may be many different ways to look at gangs. In the article Gangs from Different Sociological Perspectives and theories, many of these sociological perspectives are discussed. The article begins by taking a look at gangs from a conflict theorist perspective and how this view takes on a Marxist perspective in the fact that it is about a lower class, the gangs, trying to reach power and status of the higher class. It then goes on to talk about Weber’s point of view, in how he sees power as playing a major role in many other aspects and groups and how each of these groups have different amounts of power. In this case, gangs are seen as causing more conflict than …show more content…

In the case of this perspective, gangs are more looked at for the way they interact with people and with each other. The article goes on to discuss the core principles of this perspective, meaning, thought and language, and how these can cause major problems within a gang if any were to be misinterpreted. This perspective also encompasses social constructionism which in this case looks more at the stigma of being in a group and trying to figure out how to solve it (Essays). This helps to explain some of the perverse incentives that usually occur when joining a gang. For example, this can encompass how a miscommunication can ultimately lead gang members to become violent and known more for their crimes they commit and how these were unintended starts for as to why a person may have joined a gang in the first

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