Street Gangs of Los Angeles

Once we finished watching the documentary street gangs of Los Angeles two theories were most prevalent in my mind for why there was gang formation in that area. The first being Travis herschi’s “social bonds”. Second being Walter miller’s “focal concerns”. Social bond theory is not a crime causation theory but a pro social behavior theory that helps explain deviance. This theory identified four social bonds that promote adherence to society’s laws and values. The four bonds being: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. If there was any weakness in any of these four areas would be an explain for the cause of delinquency. Focal concerns theory is different than many other theories because it is not the rejection of middle-class values but the reasons for the behavior comes directly from the lower-class values themselves. Miller identified six areas in which lower-class males give their attention t: trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, luck, and autonomy. The more that an individual would participate in one of these areas for more respect they would gain.

The reason that I chose these two theories relies mostly on what the gang members directly said about their own situations and how the documentarians explained the gangs. With the social bonds theory the first of the four bonds is probably the leading cause for why young men join gangs in the first place. Attachment can take three different forms in this theory; attachment to parents, school, and peers. When many of the gang members were asked if they had a family we find that many lived in a broken home. Either the mother or father is in prison or dead due to gang violence. So many of these teens are lacking a parental figure to look up to and idolize. Also onc...

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...ted to create their own freedom.

Once we finished watching Street gangs of Los Angeles I realized that there are many other things that could contribute to gang formations but the theories I chose I believe show the main reasons for the formation of gangs and deviant behavior. If I could do anything to help stop gang formations and deviant behavior it would probably have to do with schooling. I feel like if there were a better schooling system in place individuals would have a place to go and not get into bad behavior and there wouldn’t be as much gang formation. This could be applied mainly to the “social bonds” theory. The only thing that I can possibly think of that can be done to change the focal concerns theory is to try and instill a new set of norms for the lower-class so they feel equal to everyone else and will not have to deviate to delinquent activity.