Engl 101 July 1, 2012 THE CURES AND CAUSES OF AMERICAN GANGS Gangs are a violent reality in today's cities. Why do they exist? What makes children feel that being in a gang is a desirable, acceptable, and prestigious way to live? The long-range answer to these questions can only be speculated upon, but the short term answers are much easier to find. Superficially, gangs are a direct result of human beings' personal desires and peer pressure.
Labeling theory involving Gangs There is a separation that is prevalent in today’s society between the rich and the poor. People who are born rich are able to commit crimes and avoid the punishment that follows, while the poor must face full punishment of the law and have few if any rights when it comes to formal sanctions of law enforcement. When you think of a gang more than likely, you do not think of a large group of close friends but rather a group of people who are menaces to society who carry guns, sell drugs, and cause havoc and violence in many different types of neighborhood’s. This is why we will investigate in further detail the labels that are placed on gangs using labeling theory and the effects it has on their social interactions. A sociologist by the name of Walter Miller did a study where he interviewed law enforcement personnel and social service professionals who dealt with youth gangs.
The problem for any society is that these boundaries are unclear and change over time. While a certain, limited amount of crime may perform positive functions for society, according to Durkheim, too much crime has negative consequences. His most well known concept was that of 'anomie', which has been widely used in sociology. According to Durkheim, society is based on people sharing common values which form the basis for actions. However, in periods of social change, people may be freed from the social control by collective conscience and start to look after their own self need rather than following social values.
Perspectives of Social Problems and Social Responsibility Within criminology there has been multiple theories suggested to explain the numerous motives behind why crime exists in our world. The two most central arguments surrounding criminal activity is whether the crime is the individuals fault, or if it is the fault of the society that they grew up in. These views are termed social responsibility and social problems, and will be discussed in this paper along with their respected perspectives that withhold why their view on criminology is the paramount reason on why criminals commit crimes. The view of social responsibilities approach to crime termed by Schmalleger essentially states that crime is an individual responsibility, and in terms of the criminal, victim, and justice system we all play a role within the social aspect of criminal behavior. Although he feels that this way of looking at crime is not fair to the victim or the justice system, but that the media over the years has influenced this way of thinking, giving the conception that certain conditions surrounding when, where, or how the crime took place may be the factor in why it happened in the first place.
Personal Perception of Organized Crime Kheesha Hudson CJA/384 April 15, 2013 Lynn Dorey Personal Perception of Organized Crime When a crime is committed, it is normally carried out in two different forms that are organized and unorganized. Most crimes are committed daily in the public eyes are consider to be unorganized. Unorganized crimes are done without much thought of the consequence of committing the particular crime. These crimes do not gain much in profit resisting in little or no wealth. I would consider unorganized crime to be crimes such as assault, drug dealing, murders, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery (Types of crime, 2013).
Social Disorganization Summary CJA/384 Sherryl Roten-West March 18, 2013 Social Disorganization Summary Criminal theories have different perspectives of how individuals become involved in crime. The theories differ and support one another, however, only a select few will describe social organization. Understanding criminological theories is vital for an understanding of crime or organized crime. The purpose of this paper is to define social disorganization, identify two or more theories that represent social disorganization, and how social disorganization relates to organized crime. Social disorganization belongs to many criminological theories; however, only a few will truly represent the cause of criminal behavior.
Organized Crime Prevention and Control As one author put it, “organized crime has been defined in the relative absence of Knowledge” about its true dimensions (Castle, 2008, p. 139). Albanese (1996) explains crime and possible organized crime in terms of the typologies of positivism, classicism, structural, and ethical explanations. The positive approach explains organized crime as caused by social and economic factors that include: poor neighborhoods and role models, lack of opportunity to achieve the “American Dream,” dysfunctional families, and even genetics. The positivist sees change in the conditions as a means to prevent criminal behavior. Walter Miller’s classic article “Ideology and Criminal Justice Policy” concluded with the observation, “when assertions are made about what measures best serve the purposes of securing order, justice, and the public welfare, one should ask, ‘How do we know this?’” (1973, p. 150).
Introductory Criminology Assignment Semester 1 2009/2010 Rhian Williams ‘Our crime problem is socially constructed’ Discuss This essay will look at different theories with regards to crime being socially constructed. It will discuss what makes a crime and how it is different from deviance. Theories such as Howard Becker’s labelling theory and Robert Merton’s adaption of Emile Durkheim’s anomie theory will be discussed to show that society plays a major role in constructing crime. It will also briefly discuss examples of acts that used to be criminal and illegal but now are widely accepted within society as part of socialization. Crime is defined as “an act prohibited and punished by law” (Collins, 2006) but there has been much debate about what ‘crime’ is.
So when applying social institution status on organized crime is because organized crime exhibits the same characteristics as some of the examples giving for social institutions. Again organized crime does the opposite of what the other social institution have done and continue to do, but it does resemble the same traits in producing productive criminal individuals for the organizations. For this reason many persons are drawn to organized crime because it exhibits value for those persons, whereas in other areas those persons feel rejected (Lyman & Potter, 2007). The next part of
These theories are different in determining factors that cause criminal behavior. The theories have played a role in different policies we have in place in the criminal justice system. I will explain the three theories of social structure before going into how they play a role in pelican bay state prison; war zone. Social disorganization theory which depicts social change, social conflict, and lack of social consensus as the root causes of crime and deviance (Schmalleger, 2012). This theory focuses on the lack of social control, gang activity, disadvantaged neighborhoods and the many conflicting social values as factors that cause people to commit crime.