Racial Inequality and Crime: Struggles of Urban African American Girls

1329 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Relationship Between Crime And Gender

Getting played is a well written portrayal of the harsh realities of African American girls in poor urban environments. The theoretical framework this book uses will be related to Sampson and Wilson 's Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality 1995. The relationship with race and crime is complex with historical, cultural, structural factors and more. The Unequal Treatment of Girls in the Ghetto Black girls in urban environments have high rates of being victims. There are multiple causal factors for this including many environmental factors such as these neighborhoods having low collective efficacy, few resources, low supervision, and more. Routine activity theory, strain, social disorganization theory, and more can be included …show more content…

Some girls put themselves in situations that put them at higher risk. These situations can be getting high and drunk at a party or at a guys house and he takes advantage of her, as well as wearing provocative clothing and having a reputation of having sex with others. Many of these boys believe that if you take a girl out to a nice restaurant and buy her stuff that they deserve to have sex. When girls deny sex it can be seen as disrespect to guys in these communities and can lead to isolation or violence. If it is not physical coercion many of the time these girls are lied to and set up to run trains on them. The black girls in these neighborhoods live in a place of poverty and in a community that lives in inequality and they are the ones who face even deeper forms of inequality because of their gender. The males in these communities have the power especially when it comes to physical and social power. This is due to structural and cultural …show more content…

The cultures that are bred in these impoverished neighborhoods like in Getting Played support criminal activity and put a stigma on getting help from the police or other government officials. The police are not seen as helping the community but as an enemy. This system increases the likelihood of physical conflict, revenge and mistrust. These girls have to fend for themselves in the streets and in their own homes from physical and sexual violence. The social capital that exists for many of these girls is strongly correlated with what the boys give them. The girl who are able to get guys to buy her stuff has more prestige in the neighborhood, but once she gets pregnant she loses her status. It is common for pregnant girls to be abandoned by the man who got her pregnant which gives rise to a broken home which is a predictor of crime. This is a generational occurrence that can help maintain the poverty, isolation, and disorganization that poor blacks

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of Song Runaway Love by Ludacris and Mary J, Blige

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    These three girls described in this song relate to sociological characteristics of poverty, education, healthcare, marriage, and family. The biggest sociological aspect seen throughout all three girl’s stories, is poverty. Poverty is a big part of the song and shows some cases in which it is like to live in poverty. At the end of the song Ludacris is talking about how he has no idea what these girls have been through. He tells the girls to close their eyes and pretend that they are running away from their lives, when they open their eyes their problems will be gone and everything will be ok.

    Read More

  • 8 Ball Chicks

    1253 Words  | 3 Pages

    8-Ball Chicks: A Year in the Violent World of Girl Gangsters is a compelling glimpse into the lives of females in gangs. The book highlights two things: these women do exist, and they are screaming for help. The book's author, Gini Sikes, is a New York-based journalist who spent two years chronicling the worlds of these girls and women in three cities--Los Angeles, San Antonio and Milwaukee. Through her travels she became immersed in the lifestyles of each gang. What she found on her journey through backyards, living rooms and housing-projects was startling. There are perhaps thousands of girl gang members across the nation, and yes, many of them are violent. Sikes' portrait of female gangs in America will both shock and move you. She delves far beyond the usual clichés and shows a depth to her subjects that are rarely seen. These girls carry razor blades in their mouths and get into fights just like their male counterparts, but many of them overcome tremendous adversity to get out of their gangs and change their lives. Sikes reports on these girl gangsters with compassion and honesty, compellingly raising the issue of our troubled urban youth without posturing or preaching. Sikes details the girl's reactions to her as well as to their own environment. 8-Ball Chicks describes everything from gang members' stories of dangerous initiation rites (girls knowingly having sex with an AIDS infected boy; gang rape initiations; gang wannabes allowing a dozen girls to beat them up at once) to the conditions that drive these young women to join gangs in the first place. Most of these girls she discovered entered the gangs for power and belonging. They did not care if they were hurt because survival became their most significant recourse. If they survived the abuse and the poverty, then they felt powerful. In 8 Ball Chicks, we discover the fear and desperate desire for respect and status that drive girls into gangs in the first place--and the dreams and ambitions that occasionally help them to escape the catch-22 of their existence.

    Read More

  • More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time)

    Read More

  • Sold By Patricia Mccormick: Summary And Analysis

    1505 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many men come to brothels for young girls, but when the girls get out of the brothel, the same people who pay for their services are the ones who reject them from the community. Also, people who know about what is going on do nothing to help the unfortunate situation in which many young girls are in. The hypocritical state of today’s society makes it challenging for these girls to eventually become ordinary citizens in the community. “A Human Security Crisis of Global Proportions” explains how “... victims are typically very young, most ranging in age from eight to eighteen years old.” Shunning a child is immoral. Parents, and even older siblings, are the ones who shape the person who the child will grow to be. Without the support and love from relatives, children have nowhere else to go, and no one to define who they will become in the future. All these girls have known are their abhorrent past lives. Having the ability to become a part of society after enduring such hardships can be strenuous without aid from the rest of the community and, most importantly, friends and relatives. Family should be there for each other, no matter what, and, in cases like this, it is obvious some families are not fulfilling that duty. In pursuit to scare the girls away from trying to escape the Happiness House, Mumtaz

    Read More

  • Decent and Street People in the Code of the Streets by Elijah Anderson

    1687 Words  | 4 Pages

    Anderson’s theory examined African Americans living in America’s inner cities that are driven to follow the “street code” and work to maintain respect, loyalty, and their own self-image. The “street code” Anderson is referring to is “a cultural adaptation” which is the cause of violent crime in America’s inner cities (Anderson Article PDF, 3). Since these people are living in mainly impoverished neighborhoods with easy access to drugs and guns, as well as high rates of crime and violence, “everyone feels isolated and alienated from the rest of America” (Vold, 187). Anderson continues to distinguish between “decent” people and “street people.” Those who are “decent” families live in accordance with a “civil code” that upholds values in comparison with the rest of society such as maintaining a job, obtaining an education, protecting their children and following the law. Additionally, “street” families tend to fend for themselves, and when young, grow up without adult supervision and are often abused. This alone causes a dangerous environment because children then, “learn that to solve any kind of interpersonal problem one must quickly resort to hitting or other violent behavior” (Anderson Article PDF, 5). When brought up in an inner city “street” family, racism is a leading factor that causes the youth to construct a negative outlook on the rest of society. When these inner city, lo...

    Read More

  • Intersectionality Of Class, Race And The Types Of Offenders By Karen M. Kristen Hefner

    1384 Words  | 3 Pages

    Parker and M. Kristen Hefner write about how the intersectionality of class, race and gender affect homicide rates at a macro level of White and African American females between the years of 1990-2000. As well as using an intersectional framework, Parker and Hefner explore how the contemporary economic, social and policy changes can differently affect black and white female homicide rates. The study reveals many interesting facts and shows how intersectionality can change how we understand crime today. Firstly, it is found that an increase in resource deprivation saw a 27% increase in white female offending and a 39% increase in black female offending. Resource deprivation includes the declining number of domestic violence shelters available to women. Some feminist scholars have criticised these domestic violence services as being “based on white, middle-class, female standards” (Parker & Hefner, 2013, p. 247) as they do not take into account the structural difficulties that only minority women face. The fact that these services do not take into account the culturally specific difficulties that minority women face, some women may feel that their only option is to turn to crime. This can explain why the rate of black female offending is much higher than that of white female offending when they are deprived of

    Read More

  • Female Juvenile Delinquency in Canada

    695 Words  | 2 Pages

    Crimes that have been classed as particularly “male” crimes are now being committed more and more by females.  These crimes include drug abuse, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and murder.  Girls also resort to punching, kicking, cutting off another girl’s hair, and burning with a cigarette as forms of assault (Carrigan 186-188).  The 1990’s has also seen the rise of female gangs, especially in the Toronto area.  Girls are seen as just as violent as boys and showing as little remorse.  Membership attitude is less rigid since members can come and go as they please, and often include bored, wealt...

    Read More

  • Brent Staples' Describes Discrimination of Black Men Through his Writing

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    The way Staples structures this essay emphasizes his awareness of the problem he faces. The essay’s framework consists mostly of Staples informing the reader of a scenario in which he was discriminated against and then following it with a discussion or elaboration on the situation. This follow-up information is often an expression stating comprehension of his problem and than subtitle, logical criticisms toward it. For example, Staples describes women “fearing the worst of him” on the streets of Brooklyn. He then proceeds to declare that he understands that “women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence.” Staples supports this statement with information about how he had witnessed gang violence in Chester, Pennsylvania and saw countless black youths locked away, however, Staples pronounces that this is no excuse for holding every young black man accountable, because he was an example of a black man who “grew up one of the good boys” coming “to doubt the virtues of intimidation early on.” This narrative structure highlights that Staples is not a hypocrite because he is not show ignorance toward the problem he is addressing unlik...

    Read More

  • Growin Up In the Hood

    993 Words  | 2 Pages

    When a child is growing up he is frequently asked what he is going to do for money when he gets older. The more this question is asked to them, the more they feel like they have to have money to be happy in life. After many tries of trying to make a stable life at a low paying job, a criminal life maybe more appealing to them at they may start living life under the gun. As stated by William Wilson in When Work Disappears, “Neighborhoods plagued by high levels of joblessness are more likely to experience low levels of social organization, they go hand in hand.” In Chicago for instance, in 1990 there was only one in three in the twelve ghetto communities that had held a job in a typical workweek of the year. When there are high rates of joblessness bigger problems surface such as violent crime, gang violence, and drug trafficking. (Wilson P356-362)

    Read More

  • Rios Punished Summary

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Punished: policing the lives of black and Latino boys author Rios, victor. Victor Rios grew up in the ghetto in the Oakland, California in the 1980s. Rios, a former gang member and juvenile delinquency. Rios managed to escape this trend of gang violent as a teen; he managed to escape the gang violent lifestyle from his peers. He provides us a with a depth overview of a three-year study of 40 minority youths, 30 of whom were previously arrested. The study was done in Oakland, California. Rios give us a clear overview inner city young Latino and African American. Rios emphasize on the difficult lives of these young men, who are faced with policies in their schools, communities, and policing. Importantly, he gives us a clear understanding

    Read More

  • “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...

    Read More

  • Ann Petry’s The Street

    1247 Words  | 3 Pages

    In our society of today, there are many images that are portrayed through media and through personal experience that speak to the issues of black motherhood, marriage and the black family. Wherever one turns, there is the image of the black woman in the projects and very rarely the image of successful black women. Even when these positive images are portrayed, it is almost in a manner that speaks to the supposed inferiority of black women. Women, black women in particular, are placed into a society that marginalizes and controls many of the aspects of a black woman’s life. As a result, many black women do not see a source of opportunity, a way to escape the drudgery of their everyday existence. For example, if we were to ask black mother’s if they would change their situation if it became possible for them to do so, many would change, but others would say that it is not possible; This answer would be the result of living in a society that has conditioned black women to accept their lots in lives instead of fighting against the system of white and male dominated supremacy. In Ann Petry’s The Street, we are given a view of a black mother who is struggling to escape what the street symbolizes. In the end though, she becomes captive to the very thing she wishes to escape. Petry presents black motherhood, marriage and the black family as things that are marginalized according to the society in which they take place.

    Read More

  • female juvenile crime

    750 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, Chesney-Lind points out that research on female offenders in general is lacking, and that victimization plays a key role in the offending of women. "…Responses must address a world that has been unfair to women and especially those of color and pover...

    Read More

  • Documentary 'Rize' by David LaChapelle

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout, the documentary one can come to the conclusion that most of these African- Americans who live in this area are being judged as violent and bad people. However this is not the case, many of them are just normal people who are try...

    Read More

  • Women In Refugee Camps

    281 Words  | 1 Pages

    Not only are young women getting abandoned by their families, but girls who live in third world countries who are forced to live in refugee camps are far more likely to be attacked with sexual and poverty. “Life in refugee camps is a daily struggle for women and girls, women are at far greater risk of sexual violence and poverty,” (All Africa News Desk). Women their have no control over what happens to them in their lives, men will only use them for sex, then leave when they find out they’re pregnant. Since women are also not allowed to work, other than a housewife, when they are on their own caring for a child they usually must beg and live on the streets. They have no home, nowhere to go, and no way of making any currency to provide for

    Read More

More about Racial Inequality and Crime: Struggles of Urban African American Girls

Open Document