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Psychological causes of criminal behavior
Psychological causes of criminal behavior
Psychological causes of criminal behavior
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The book We Beat the Street by DRS. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt, and Sharon Draper, is a captivating autobiography about three boys, Sampson, Rameck, and George, who overcame several obstacles and became important doctors. This story took place in the dangerous location of Newark, New Jersey, in the 1980-1990’s, where violence, peer pressure, and drugs were often found. Accordingly, the majority of people were greatly impacted by the negativity around them. In this book, Sampson and Rameck were affected by their negative environment, hence they were involved in unfortunate situations, and often had to face severe consequences, some as serious as being arrested. It was Thanksgiving weekend, and seventeen year-old Rameck …show more content…
The boys decided to earn some extra money, therefore they decided to rob some of the younger drug dealers on the corner. Not only did they rob them of their money, but they scared them with a gun, and when the police found out they arrested Sampson’s friends. Although Sampson managed to escape in time, his car was left at the crime scene and he was found guilty for the crime. Sampson was taken to the first of four units, the section for violent crimes at a detention center where he would stay imprisoned for four weeks. His cell was tiny, and he had nothing but a thin, dirty, mattress which had been previously been slept on by several others. In addition, Sampson had a great amount of time to think about things. First, he thought about the boy he had been arrested with , whose location was unknown to him. Next, he thought about staying away from people who impacted him negatively like his “friends”, and although he knew it would be difficult to do so, he felt the need to. Finally, Sampson thought about Rameck, George, and his future. The three of them tried out for a doctor and dentist program at Seton Hall University, and Sampson realized how much better it would be at a university than at a jail. In addition to thinking a lot, Sampson saw his family regularly. He also watched the …show more content…
He now understood that he should not have been hanging around people who impacted him poorly. In addition, Sampson also knew that he must prioritize himself and not other people. This changed Sampson’s life because now he desired to work toward a better future. Eventually, he left behind what was holding him back and worked to become a doctor. Sampson never got involved in anymore criminal behavior. Similarly to the way prison changed Sampson’s life, it changed Rameck’s as well. Rameck decided to “stay out of trouble, to hang out with Sampson and George more, aim for higher goals.” (Draper 107). He learned about the horrible things that happen to people in jail. Furthermore, he realized that he couldn’t continue with his daily activities because he wasn’t free to do so. This experience changed Rameck’s life because he realized that unlike the people in jail were, he never wanted to be accustomed to the lifestyle that he had to bare for four days. Rameck wanted to be able to have goals and to achieve them, and he never went back to
Kody Scott was born into the gang life weither he liked it or not. Born on 1963 in South Central Los Angeles Kody?s life would be affected by the growing number of gangs inevitably. Kody knew he had a choice to be made, be a gang member or be a pedestrian. He viewed pedestrians as spineless nerds who were always victims of someone?s ridicule or physical violence, who never responded to an affront of any type. He himself had a taste of pedestrian life in grade school were he was picked on and had his lunch money taken from him. ?Early on I saw and felt both sides of the game being played where I lived. It was during my time in elementary school that I chose to never be a victim again, if I could help it?(Shakur 100). Being in a gang gave Kody a feeling of security in a city of violence. ?I felt very different, older, more attached than any of...
Jumped in by Jorja Leap is an autobiographical book about the experiences of a UCLA professor’s struggle to understand the lifestyle of gangs, and to figure out a way to end gang violence. Jorja Leap is an outsider looking at these communities from an intellectual sociological point of view, but she also has her personal biases shown. She stated in the book she is similar to an anthropologist, committing research specifically on gangs to comprehend their motivations. Her research leads her to interact with individuals that were or are affected by gang violence, whether they were the culprit or the victim. A large amount of the individuals she interviewed also want to end gang violence. These people know the negative effects that it has had on their communities and the suffering that it causes. These
This quote greatly describes how being imprisoned affected his life. It is the place where he reflected about his life before being thrown into the slammer. He looked back at how meaningless his life really was. It seemed sort of ironic that he had to end up in prison to realize it. The only thing that keeps him busy while being locked up is having old flashbacks of his life before everything occurred. He is finally reflecting for once in his life and having deep thoughts.
The novel Freak the Mighty, written by Rodman Philbrick, is a wonderful book told from the perspective of Max (one of the two main characters), is a story of unforgettable friendship. Max and Kevin (the other main character) meet for the first time in preschool. Years later, Kevin moves in to Max’s neighborhood. This is when the friendship of hope, confidence, and strength build up in both Max and Freak, and together they accomplish what no one can.
Street fight follows a race for mayor that turns extremely dirty, with the incumbent taking corrupt measures against the “protagonist” of the film Cory Booker. Cory's plan is to go through the city of Newark to talk to the people in order to better understand them and connect with them on an individual level. His appeal to the people is that“incumbents ether
He talks about his experience as a target and how he knew everyone looked at him and also talks about the embarrassment and repetitiveness he had towards his fellow community because he felt prejudiced and on edge because he didn’t know what would happen to him. Then when he was in jail, he starts to read a book and likes it, but that lead to his “new found hobby” writing poetry, he says “he had a place to stand for the first time in his life”. Meaning that through his writing, he could finally feel safe, judgement free. Which gave him the confidence to write poetry, by feeling redemption from his past experience of school and when he felt like an outsider. “He also says through language I was free”. Showing the reader automatically he felt free for a reason suggesting his early to teen years he felt more than uncomfortable he felt not safe or trapped by the society he lived
Claude Brown writes precisely of these detrimental effects as he writes an autobiography about his experience growing up in Harlem. In the book, Sonny (Claude’s kid nickname) joins a gang called the “buccaneers” when he is eleven. His friends run the streets stealing, skipping school, and rebelling against their parents. It all seems like harmless fun to Sonny until he is arrested and sent to the Wiltwyck boy’s home, a reform school.
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is about two boys, Kevin and Max. Max doesn’t trust other people and does whatever he can to keep them from getting too close. In daycare, he does this by kicking people, whom they call him Kicker. Then freak is the exact opposite of max, he is small, smart, confident, adventurous and called himself a robot man because of the leg braces he had to wear. Sometimes the most precious people in our life were meant to be there, to teach us a lesson and to help us figure out who we are.
Sam grew up in the neighborhood as the two other boys and experienced such poverty and witnessed ton of crimes. Sam talks about his role model that he had met and looked up to. He was a martial-arts teacher named Reggie. Reggie was also a security guard also he was the type of person who made an honest living and was respected by some of the toughest guys in the community. Reggie was a highly trained black belt who help sam, but Sam started to slip after he turn 15 and stray with guys 4 - 7 years older than him. He would hang out late they also drink 40 ounces malt liquor as they hung out. Sam stopped lessons with Reggie and headed towards trouble with the boys.
Sonny was brought up in this very Harlem and learned how to steal and fight his way through life. However, life fought him back at every opportunity. “By the time I was nine years old, I had been hit by a bus, thrown into the Harlem River (intentionally), hit by a car, severely beaten by a chain. And I had set the house afire” (Brown 12). Sonny’s childhood was filled with so much mayhem that it would be ridiculous for anyone to expect his turnaround into a functional adult. Nevertheless, he accomplished just that . He did it by learning from not only his mistakes, but from others as well. Seeing how everyone he knew was going to prison, dying, or becoming a junkie, Sonny decided that he wanted a better life than what the streets of Harlem could offer. Sonny grew beyond his environment until he finally stopped doing drugs, he got a job, and went to college. He overcame the low expectations of him and ended up being better than what anyone had expected. Although, his personal growth was not a quick one, it was slow, painful and has relevance throughout the entire
Sometimes it takes us human beings to experience our lows before we appreciate our highs in life. For Mona Ruiz, this became true when she had accomplished her dream of becoming a police officer for the Santa Ana Police Department. She had gone through many struggles such as with education, physical abuse, racism, and gang affiliation. Nevertheless she prevailed and outdid her peers, regardless of what they thought of her. She has recently written an astonishing autobiography, Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz with co-author Geoff Boucher. It describes her dramatic life living in the barrio and how although she might have associated herself with the wrong crowd, she set aside the ridicule and went to pursue a career most of her friends would
“Boyz N the Hood” is a film produced in 1991 that follows the lives of three young men living in the ghetto of Los Angeles. The analysis of the film dissects questions of “race, relationships, violence, and future prospects” while demonstrating specific characteristics and themes of the hip-hop culture. One collective theme throughout our readings, lectures, and films as well as throughout “Boyz in the Hood” is the commonality of violence. It was said in the film that one in every twenty-one young men within the American inner city will die of gunshot wounds, and other young men will have shot most. It is this ‘brother-on-brother’ wrongdoing that joins other unfortunate themes in this culture together, including illegal activities, death, and imprisonment.
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.
As Anderson elaborates on the “campaigning for respect” I found it to be an important part of the book. The code of the streets is all about respect; everything we do in the streets is all for respect. As a result, without respect, we will not be able to survive on the streets because much of the code have to do with achieving and maintaining the respect. Anderson touch bases on children from the “street” groups going to the streets to hang out late in references to children from the “decent families having curfews and being taught to stay out of trouble, having to look capable of taking care of yourself, parents imposing sanctions if their child is not aggressive enough, and other topics. This was a strong analysis of how we start at a young
Growing up can be difficult and living an environment as a child can encourage certain behaviors in adult life. African American author James Baldwin showed a light on this subject through his own interpretation in his short story “Sonny’s Blues”. Here Baldwin, hit the nail on the head with the similarities between Sonny’s childhood growing up in Harlem, with what occurs in actual environments young people face: poverty, and drugs. In an environment the possibilities and outcomes that a young person deals with is endless since, it is so huge and vast. By having so many options, many factors can cause a young person to go down the wrong path. One of these factors is societal pressure that youth and young