The phenomenon of criminal conduct and antisocial behavior by members of gangs is not something new in Western society. Sociological terms gangs in the United States are labeled as a deviant subculture. This means that gangs are a subgroup that deviates from the generally accepted norms, values, and behavioral expectations of the dominant society. Many groups in the United States have aspects and attributes that set them apart from the general society but they do not pose a perceived threat to the social order. These groups include radical nonviolent religious groups, nudists, and general non-conformists. The line is drawn when these subcultures become criminal or delinquent. This is how gangs are generally perceived by the public. Criminal or doing good subcultures manifest such extreme and negative nonconformity to the larger society that its members are generally viewed as being directly again...
The documentary, “Crips and Bloods: Made in America” talks about many social concerns. In the documentary, both discrimination and economics are the main factors for the problems in Southern California. The gangs started because of discrimination. By denying people because of their skin color to join social activities such as the boy/girl scouts is what led to the formation of groups that later turned into gangs. Apart from that, hatred and threats escalated the situations that then turned the gangs into what they are today. According to the documentary, because of the gang rivalry there exists an invisible line that separates the territories of both the Crips and the Bloods. Not only is that the only factor, but also
The Crips, originating in Los Angeles, California, are one of the oldest, largest, and most notorious gangs in the United States. They have been involved in murders, robberies and drug dealing in the Los Angeles area. The Crips are mostly identified by the blue color worn by their members. What was once a single gang is now a loose network of "franchises" around the United States. The gang primarily (but not exclusively) comprises African Americans. The Crips have an intense rivalry with the Bloods and are also known to feud with Chicano gangs.
Free, Jr, Marvin. African Americans and the Criminal Justice System. 13. New York: Garland Publishing, 1996. Print.
In order to meet the ideal measure of standards and morals to be a part of the usual social standard, one must be able to meet specific goals to achieve economic success. When these standards are not met, it is called anomie according to Robert Merton. In the documentary Bloods & Crips: Made in America, we see the underlying and outside factors which have provoked African American youth to become involved in gangs and gang related violence. According to Merton, “some social structures exert a definite pressure upon certain persons... to engage in nonconformist conduct,” (672). There are two social structures that are important in order for youth to succeed the normal standard of living which can cause pressure on the individual and cause
The author begins his ethnography by giving us insight of the crime rate in the 1990s. He described this subject as the “age of drive-by shootings, drug deals gone bad, crack cocaine, and gangsta rap” ( ) that dominated the talk of the time. This type of ideology led our society to believe that we should put massive
Levin, b (2002). From slavery to hate crime: the emergence of race and status based
There are two major Black gangs in Los Angeles, which are known universally as the “Bloods” and the “Crips”, they are most known for their “organization of the sale of crack and out shooting the police with huge arsenals of Uzi and Mac-10 automatics.” (Davis, 81) Because they distinguish themselves by the Bloods color-coding their clothes in red and the Crips in blue, police officers have used this against many black males wearing the color of these gang rivals. Many times the Chief of Police gives orders for the officers to “stop and interrogate anyone who they suspect is a gang member, basing their assumptions on their dress or their use of gang hand signals.” (Davis, 83) Law enforcement has also been found to be deliberately provoking gang violence by writing over Crip graffiti with red, which is the Bloods color, or Blood graffiti with the Crip color.
According to Becker, the labelling theory of deviance looks at what happens to individuals after they are labelled as deviant (Skatvedt & Schou, 2008) The symbolic interactionist approach focuses on the role of social labels and sanctions that pressure individual gang members to continue engaging in deviant acts (Skatvedt & Schou, 2008).The labelling theory suggests that when an individual is labeled as deviant they are more likely to be rejected by families, friends, and societies which ultimately leads to further deviant acts (Becker, 1973). The deviant identity is thus complete when the individual gang member integrates himself into the gang subculture (Becker, 1973). Two high school gangs, the Roughnecks and the Saints, were constantly involved in deviant acts such as drinking, petty theft etc.,; however, high school teachers labelled the Saints as those headed for success and the Roughnecks as those headed for trouble (Chambliss, 1973) After high school, almost all of the Saints went to college and became doctors, lawyers, etc. while only two Roughnecks went to college and others were involved in killings and dropped out of school and so forth (Chambliss, 1973) This case study demonstrates that labels are powerful; they can trigger a greater involvement in deviant acts through social
The first topic or issue he touches up on is comparison of professional vs. citizen obligations; he covers the fact that once again race plays a huge part in the statistics found within the neighborhoods where the most crime is reported. He speaks of how max weber talks of ones obligation as a citizen and also as a professional; basically if as lawyers we see racial discrimination being a factor within the system we have a professional obligation to do something about it and work to correct the problem. The second issue he touches on is the crime rate that is often associated with race and the data he has gathered together about the rates coming from both white and black males. These numbers are very relevant as to why he feels race plays a big role in how people are seen crime rate data, and how there are some crimes that whites commit more than black v...
CNN presents the documentary, Homicide in Hollenbeck, spotlighting gang activity in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollenbeck. This documentary explores the subculture of gangs existing within Hollenbeck from a several perspectives. The people documented include a mother who lost both of her sons to gang violence, a priest that has tried to help rehabilitate gang members, a police officer that has worked in Hollenbeck for five years in the gang unit, and a current gang member. For a conclusion, Homicide in Hollenbeck focuses on a juvenile exposed to gang life on the cusp of decided where they want their life to lead; gangs or freedom. Problems attributed to the high rate of gang activity and number of gangs in Hollenbeck are the high poverty rate, low employment rate, and broken families that make up the majority of Hollenbeck. The crime most discussed, as per the title of the documentary, is homicide The number of gang related homicides has risen even though the criminal behavior of gangs has ultimately decreased in the neighborhood. In order to fight the overwhelming gang presence, the police believe in increasing the amount of gun power on the streets and number of jailed gang members. The priest who runs Homeboy Industries stated that he feels most gang members are just young men who can’t get out of the gang life. With more funds and opportunities, he thinks the problem could be decreased. In the end, the documentary mentions that the FBI has formed a gang center where local law enforcement agencies can share information to gain more knowledge and to better fight the presence of gangs.
When Kody Scott was 6 years old, the gang wars started in Los Angeles. It started out as a battle between the Crips and the Bloods, but by the late 70's and continuing today, the biggest killer of Crips is other Crips. The Crip Nation was divided into different divisions, which Monster compares to the U.S. Army. "For instance, one who is in the army may belong to the F...
Crips and Bloods: Made in America took place in south of Los Angeles focusing on gang violence among two fearsome African American gangs, Crips and Bloods. The documentary sends the viewer to the roots of the social strains of African American people that created Crips and Bloods. After the Civil War in the United States, slaves were granted freedom, they moved far from the south. As time passed African Americans were faced with many hardships from loss of jobs to racial profiling from law enforcement.
One of the positivist theory demonstrated in Crips and Bloods: Made in America is Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory. Both gangs initially started as a new generation watched the turmoil that their parents endured. They saw the police targeting and the response of their parents. That is how the Crips was formed. Sutherland’s Theory states, “If an individual associates with people who hold deviant (or criminal) ideas more than with people who embrace conventional ideas, the individual is like to become deviant” (24). The founders of the Crips associated with rest of the African-American population as they grew up watching their families be brutalized by the police and result in riots or other criminal behaviors. Society had such a
Everything that the vast majority "know" about groups from broad communications and from "sound judgment" is tried by previous skateboarder-turned-chief Stacy Peralta's amazing film "Crips and Bloods: Made in America". Rather than taking the commonplace, simple courses for treating packs—either introducing them as awful, thoughtless hooligans or glamorizing their savagery—the film takes a considerably more difficult, yet genuine course, demonstrating the perplexing social conditions out of which Los Angeles posses emerged, amidst impoverishment, racial isolation, police severity, and government concealment of developments for dynamic social change. Critically, LA roads groups must be comprehended in connection to the sensational occasions in