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Social factors that contribute to criminal behavior
Relationship between unemployment and increasing rates of crime among youth
Effects of crime among youth
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Social institutions are defined as established or standardized patterns of rule-governed behavior. They include the family, education, religion, and economic and political institutions. In The Code of the Streets, Elijah Anderson plays on the fact that a persons environment can play a big part in a persons behavior. According to Anderson “ simply living in such an environment places young people at risk of falling victim to aggressive behavior.” For example, one of the social institutions mentioned by Anderson in economic standards. Economic standards are relevant in The Code of the Streets, because if a person’s appearance in a sense looks a bit classier then the average person in the area they earn a sense of respect. Respect is a big part of the Code of the Streets because to some it is seen as being treated right. A person’s economic standard in a way reflects whether they deserve respect. For example, lets say you couldn’t afford the latest pair Jordan’s but a group of your peers could, they in a way are now above you in the social chain of respect. This can influence crime, because if a person of a lower income family sees that they can attain respect in a simple way that just so happens to be illegal such …show more content…
Although I feel that other things can contribute to there being crime in urban neighborhoods. I felt as though the three topics that I have stated could possibly be the root of these problems. Ultimately, the one thing that stood out to me, and what I emphasized on a lot was location. The area in which a person is brought up leaves a huge impression on a person. What I feel that Elijah Anderson emphasizes is that in different locations and especially in urban areas two peoples definition of normal and decent can be completely different because they weren’t brought up in the same
He is a decorated veteran, scholar and successful business leader upon graduating. In comparison to the other Wes Moore who never seemed to escape his childhood and ended up in prison. The theory that best explains the authors’ noninvolvement in a life of crime vs. the criminality of the other Wes Moore is the social disorganization theory. Shaw and McKay, the founders of this theory, believed that “juvenile delinquency could be understood only by considering the social context in which youths lived. A context that itself was a product of major societal transformations wrought by rapid urbanization, unbridled industrialization, and massive population shifts” (Lilly, Cullen & Ball, 2015). The theory is centered around transitional zones and competition determined how people were distributed spatially among these zones (Lilly et al., 2015). This model founded by Ernest Burgess showed that high priced residential areas were in the outer zones and the inner zones consisted of poverty (Lilly et al.,
The functions that take place in Los Angeles is what is causing these gangs and violence. Anomie is the social feedback from an individual due to the impotent access of reaching the "American Dream", status, income, education, and freedom. Anomie is a burden that people are usually born into and causes them to operate in way that are not useful to society and do not promote societal stability. Anomie shows that the opportunities here in America are not equal for all and this is because of boundaries an individual is stuck inside of, just how Michelle Alexander believes blacks are trapped inside of a racist criminal justice system for
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...
In the world we live in today, deviance happens to play an integral role in within the societies that scatter our globe, whether we like it or not. Deviance describes actions or behaviors that violate the social norms of our society. These behaviors can violate formally enacted rules, such as laws that are put into place by government, as well as the informal type of “guidelines” that various cultures have informally established and shaped for themselves. As one may come to understand, norms are essentially expectations that are standard to a certain culture. These norms gently guide people in a society in “what to do,” and “what not to do,” in compliance with their societies' norms. With this said, it is important to keep in mind that social norms differ from culture to culture. One act that may be considered deviant in a particular society, may be generally accepted in another. Three main sociological theories of deviance include the cultural transmission theory (also known as the differential association theory), the labeling theory, and the control theory.
James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling were not the first researchers to point out the damaging effects that disorder, such as run-down buildings and graffiti, had on communities. They were, however, the first to accuse disorder of actually encouraging crime. (Gau & Pratt, 2010) The researchers were set on improving the minor problems in communities. Researchers dubbed these irritants “incivilities” or “disorder” and proposed that vandalism, graffiti, prostitution, aggressive panhandling and other socially undesirable conditions were the real causes behind people’s fear of crime. By doing so, Wilson and Kelling believed the appearance of the communities would greatly improve, decreasing the citizen’s fear of crime. Citizens would begin to take pride in their community and feel comfortable enough to just walk the streets. (2011, 106)
These crime-ridden communities (or ghettos) are springing up all through the country, mainly in and around major metropolitan areas. These areas are the most populated, so that means that within these areas are the most people there to be influenced by the crimes committed by fellow people. In Male's reading he shows statistics that prove the fact that once the poverty factor is taken away then teen violence disappears. He later adds, “That if America wants to rid of juvenile violence than serious consideration needs to be given to the societally inflicted violence of raising three to 10 times more youth in poverty than other Western nations.” (Males p386)
Society teaches us as individuals how to behave, interact, and even think. There are several components to creating norms in society. Some of these are called values, norms, sanctions, folkways, mores, and taboos (Henslin, 49-55). Each of these is a crucial part to creating what we live and
Several individuals within society typically follow social guidelines that they are unaware of performing. Social guidelines such as stopping at a red light or saying thank you when someone has done something for you. These social guidelines or norms give society a script to follow regarding their behavior and actions. Although norms are the acceptable actions and behaviors that society is taught to perform, there are occurrences where individuals stay away from those in which they are now enacting deviance. To act deviant is considered to break away or do something different of a social norm. There are several forms of deviance that occur frequently within society that violate social norms and hinder society’s overall function.
...f the greater society. If a neighborhood becomes strained from society and starts to develop its own social norms that will not mirror those with the rest of society. Then it has lost its social control.
This theory however as some have argued has emerged from social disorganisation theory, which sees the causes of crime as a matter of macro level disadvantage. Macro level disadvantage are the following: low socioeconomic status, ethnic or racial heterogeneity, these things they believe are the reasons for crime due to the knock on effect these factors have on the community network and schools. Consequently, if th...
For this assignment I decided to read the book Code of the Street: decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city by Elijah Anderson. This book is about how inner city people live and try and survive by living with the code of the streets. The code of the streets is basically morals and values that these people have. Most of the time it is the way they need to act to survive. Continuing on within this book review I am going to discuss the main points and arguments that Anderson portrays within the book. The main points that the book has, goes along with the chapters. These points consist of Street and decent families, respect, drugs violence, street crime, decent daddy, the mating game, black inner city grandmother. Now within these points there are a few main arguments that I would like to point out. The first argument is the belief that you will need to accept the street code to get through life. The other one is the belief that people on the street need “juice”. For the rest of this paper we will be looking at each one of main points and arguments by going through each chapter and discussing it.
Every day of my life the sociology of “norms” is at work in my daily life. It works on a subconscious level, keeping me from acting “strange”. These norms are my guiding light to acting “normal” and fitting in with the societies that I am a part of, they tell me how to conduct myself and what my expectations of other’s behaviors should be.
Therefore, the community has informal social control, or the connection between social organization and crime. Some of the helpful factors to a community can be informal surveillance, movement-governing rules, and direct intervention. They also contain unity, structure, and integration. All of these qualities are proven to improve crime rate. Socially disorganized communities lack those qualities. According to our lecture, “characteristics such as poverty, residential mobility, and racial/ethnic heterogeneity contribute to social disorganization.” A major example would be when a community has weak social ties. This can be caused from a lack of resources needed to help others, such as single-parent families or poor families. These weak social ties cause social disorganization, which then leads higher levels of crime. According to Seigel, Social disorganization theory concentrates on the circumstances in the inner city that affect crimes. These circumstances include the deterioration of the neighborhoods, the lack of social control, gangs and other groups who violate the law, and the opposing social values within these neighborhoods (Siegel,
Therefore, society evolves as an organism with various structures, which perform different distinct functions. Scholar Jennie McIntyre, who believes in this approach, addresses the society in the realms of important functions played by the distinct elements of the societal structures. The structures here include customs of a particular society, its traditions, the norms applicable in the society, and the institutions that surround a particular society (Kingsbury & Scanzoni,
“A social institution is a complex, integrated set of social norms organized around the preservation of a basic societal value. Obviously, the sociologist does not define institutions in the same way, as does the person on the street. Lay persons are likely to use the term "institution" very loosely, for churches, hospitals, jails, and many other things as institutions.” (Social Guide website) Furthermore, Institutions are Family, education and religion important in Charles Dickens’ novel. There are some reason Who are the persons that represent these values and norms and in what terms, Which are the values and norms attached to these institutions, with respect to Important Characters, concrete events related to the values and norms attached to family and education institutions, Analysis of all characters that either institutions conflicts with values and norms.