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Crime as a social phenomenon
Crime as a social phenomenon
Which theories are appropriate to end gang violence
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The documentary, The Interrupters, is a film that tells the ongoing journey of three ‘violence interrupters’ who’s goals are to stop and prevent violence from their South Side Chicago, Illinois neighborhoods, which they once took part of. An interesting aspect of this film is that Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams and Eddie Bocanegra, the three ‘violence interrupters’, reflect on their experiences with violence in the streets of Chicago in order to better help these young men and women avoid the community violence. These three ‘violence interrupters’ work intensely with a number of people (mostly young adults) who are prone to acting out and violent behavior. Throughout this movie, I saw applications of the social-ecological model, not only …show more content…
Tio Hardiman, the creator of the Violence Interrupters Program, said, “You can give them a history lesson. Your daddy was violent, your granddaddy was violent, and your great granddaddy was violent. And now your brothers are messed up because you misled them” (James et al., 2012). He is describing how violence is a learned behavior from your family and close peers. Hardiman goes on to tell a little about his own family’s history with violence. When he was fourteen, a man tried to hurt him in the streets, but his stepfather killed the man right in front of him, and he recalls feelings good about it. This family taught him violence was okay through their own …show more content…
Society influences the socioeconomic inequalities between people, which usually results in differing social and cultural norms surrounding violence. These norms might include male dominance over women, while certain cultural norms might support violence and claim it to be a reasonable method to resolve conflicts in neighborhoods. We see this shown in the film because they talk about how violence is a two step process. The first part is the thought that, ‘I have a grievance with someone’, and the second part is that the grievance justifies violence (James et al.,
As described in the film “Tough Guise 2”, the U.S. is both obsessed with and is a victim of its own culture. On one hand, movies and video games that glamorize violence and books that argue that violence. Additionally, many other films and books highlight that violence is a core aspect of male masculinity and argues that men are losing it through the empowerment of women and the loss of employment. At the same time, the United States has suffered through countless gun-related deaths and the mainstreaming of media such as Bum Fights, where actual homeless people are assaulted on camera. But due to the politicization of the issue of violence and the news media to properly explain the issue to the U.S., many people are taught that violence stems from the youth, which is only part of the broader picture. Instead of identifying and preventing the largest source of violence in the country, young white males, the focus is instead shifted toward the potential of violence of young men of color in poor urban
The film, The Interrupters, explains about a group of people in Chicago that are fighting for a ceasefire (Kotlowitz, 2012). This group of interrupters is comprised of ex-gang members that have been recruited to stop the violence (Kotlowitz, 2012). For many years the streets of Chicago have been full of violence; the incidents that were occurring involve many fatal shootings that have taken the lives of many young people in the community. According to the film, “nine people were shot in five hours” and there was a thirteen year old boy that was shot twenty-two times (Kotlowitz, 2012). The consequences of actions are not thought about, and many people in Chicago are acting violently in retaliation instead of thinking about
The documentary Tough Guise reveals that the cause of violence traces back to cultural codes on masculinity and societal expectations rooted from such codes. Prior to watching the documentary, it was difficult to understand how culture played a part in men’s violence—it was thought to be more of a natural phenomenon linked to men’s biological traits. The documentary, however, disproves this: men’s violence in America is “made” by the society, not “given”, and thus cultural implications should be explored to understand where the violence really comes from.
The documentary Tough Guise reveals that the cause of violence traces back to cultural codes on masculinity and societal expectations rooted from such codes. Prior to watching the documentary, it was difficult to understand how culture played a part in men’s violence—it was thought to be more of a natural phenomenon linked to men’s biological traits. The documentary, however, disproves this: men’s violence in America is “made” by the society, not naturally “given”, and thus cultural implications should be explored to understand where the violence really comes from.
Society offers different factors, like peer pressure or poor grades, which steer an individual to commit a crime (Einstadter, Werner and Stuart 2006). Indeed, there is an abundant relation between childhood experience of violence and unruly behavior and their adulthood behavior. This is a product of a social progress, where children become victims or eyewitnesses of certain criminal acts. Through social progress, some traits, which were not learned before, are recognized and slowly displayed, especially among children. For instance, children brought up in violence, either by being victims or eye witnesses of criminal acts, will display such behavior in their adulthood (Woolf, 2006). Therefore, people will commit different crimes depending in the environment in which they were
The Social Learning Theory explains that children and adults can learn aggression and violence from observing parents, siblings or friends. As well as being rewarded for aggressive and violent behavior. (Siegel, 2015) This is just one theory that
Throughout human history, violence, for the most part, has been a perpetual struggle we’ve faced. It does not discriminate against location, color, or creed, and it has an impact, lasting or not, on each of us at some point during our lives. Living in a Western country, many of us have become accustomed to the idea that true violence only lives in the ravaged lands of warring countries or the dilapidated streets of rundown neighborhoods, but in truth it can be found anywhere. Community center’s, schools, churches, and even the most secluded towns all encounter violence, though sometimes behind closed doors, everyone is vulnerable to it. But what prompts it to occur exactly? Violence itself stems from the causality of several different factors,
Children that are raised in a violent environment are more likely to grow up and become violent. “Albert Bandura ...
The statement suggests that those with no history of violence within their family and/or those who had a good upbringing will most likely not go on to commit violent crimes. At first this does seem like a reasonable suggestion to make. However, once we look deeper into this topic we uncover more complex explanations that are used to understand the phenomenon that is violent crime. Psychological perspectives are widely used throughout the world of criminology in order to help comprehend why crime is committed and the patterns that occur between the type of offender and type of crime. There perspectives are broken down into four main areas within psychology; Biological/Evolutionary, Social/Learning theory, Psychoanalytical/Psychodynamic and finally
The rest of the article went on to elaborate on how the American attachment to "dominance models of manhood," according to Amanda Marcotte of Salon, is a significant factor as to why or culture has such high levels of violence. Supporting aggressiveness, physicality, and anger within masculinity makes it toxic and harms
Many experts do not accept that biology alone creates children who kill. They believe that violence is a learned behavior. Being abused or witnessing domestic violence is an environmental factor in ju...
“The typical American child watches 28 hours of television a week, and by the age of 18 will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence.” With all of that violence on TV there is a good chance of a child thinking that violence is the answer to all their questions. Yet it isn’t just the TV that brings us the violence there are other factors. “Girls who watched more than an average amount of violence tended to throw things at their husbands. Boys who grew up watching violent TV shows were more likely to be violent with their wives.” This is true but what if you didn’t watch the violent TV shows but your parents acted that way to each other? Would you turn into a wife better or would you turn into a caring person? This hasn’t been proven so I can’t give you an exact answer. What I do believe is that children look up to their parents ...
Specifically the nurture side you can bring up children or even adults who look at things in the media or play games and become violent because of the things they see and because they want to do what they see. They are influenced by the violent acts they see which are bad because they continue the acts of violence. The things they see around them and see through the media turn them into the violent people we hear of in the world.
As the exposure to violence prolongs, a child begins to believe that violence is an acceptable behavior or the answer to receiving what they want. Outcomes such as trauma, emotional disorders, stress, and behavioral problems are also prevalent as the exposure to violence occurs. Children often learn their behavior from adults or peers and although a child might not be physically involved, but even being an audience, he/she is learning the negative behavior. There must be an effort to put a stop to violence in schools, households, or even in communities as it affects children greatly.