The story of the Saints and the Roughnecks shows how great the impact that appearance, background, and action can have on a reputation following the future. While both groups participated in deviant behavior only one (the Roughnecks) were perceived as bad within the community and received punishment. Several sociology theories offer explanations as to why this came to be with each giving a twist on how human perception can be misleading in such events. Strain theory stood out as a good explanation as to why the Roughnecks didn’t really set goals or seek guidance for their issues. This theory basically states that limitations applied to certain people will affect their strive and the confidence in their efforts which will eventually lead to …show more content…
The theory explains how people could be labeled a certain way which would follow them and encourage them to act within the confines of said label or be unable to be perceived as anything but that label. These apparent role models participated in deviant behavior almost equal to that of the Roughnecks and yet they went on to be remembered as good kids. They were allowed to act like delinquents but were never perceived as such because they maintained appearances (good grades, healthy interactions, and lots of participation). The Roughnecks on the other hand took no steps to help with their reputation (they skipped school, made their actions public and attracted a lot of negative attention) thus insuring their label. Regardless of each student’s involvement with certain activities they obtained their labels and kept them through …show more content…
There was never a sense of equality or fairness in the way my school operated and everyone knew it. The Saints and the Roughnecks shared many similarities but ended up on different spectrums of life. Most of the Saints went on to live rich, fulfilling lives will the Roughnecks endured struggles ending with a good number of them in jail. Your left wondering if the perceptions of the people around them were correct or if it was those same perceptions that insured that they would be correct. In the end not everyone complied with their fate but the article proved just how strong a person’s opinion on another can
Everyone expected the Saints to be successful and the Roughnecks to live a troubled life.
Inventing the Savage: The Social Construct of Native American Criminality. Luana Ross. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1998.
We were not allowed to discuss lessons, and on math assignments, if we did the problem in a way that was different from the way we were taught, it was automatically marked wrong. We were taught in a similar fashion, frequently being told to shut up or whatever we had to say wasn 't important if the teacher didn 't want us talking. One shining example of the lack of respect our staff had for the students was an assembly that occurred in fourth grade. A student would not stop talking and the principal yelled at him to be quiet. The student stood up and threw a temper tantrum. The principal then grabbed him, put him in a headlock, and said, "Son, I swear to God, if you make my back go out, I 'll make you regret it!" These experiences lead me to believe teachers saw us as little more than an obstacle - something they had to overcome each day - instead of what we really were: young children, whose minds they needed to protect and mold into the future of this
Stereotypes within our society have shaped the way we perceive each other. Throughout the book Punished by Victor Rios, a lot of stereotypes were not only reinforced but also used against a lot of the boys. A lot of the boys presented throughout the book had never actually committed a crime but they were treated as if they had. These boys were constantly labeled and categorized, like folders into a filling cabinet or a bin. Sure Oakland, California had a lot of gang-infested areas but that does not mean everyone in that area is part of a gang or is committing a crime. Thus, this book really demonstrates how one can be perceived or labeled as a criminal due to his or her surroundings and how these stereotypes can destroy one’s chance of freedom.
...r of a family who grew up in a town where crime, racism, and violence flourished. The social problems that were present in Southie, Boston all could have been minimized if only the parents had led their children down the right path. Parents could have warned their children of the horrors associated with any associations to the drug trade, discouraged them from discrimination against people of different races, and reporting the violence that occurred in their neighborhood instead of remaining silent in the hopes of upholding some kind of Southie loyalty code/ “Southie code of silence” (MacDonald 8). Instead parents did not teach their children about the dangers of the drug trade; they encouraged racial discrimination, and remained quiet in the face of violence. All of those things contributed to the poor living conditions and bad reputation of South “Southie” Boston.
Sutherland’s theory suggests that people learn to commit crime and deviant behaviors from others. His theory is similar to what is mentioned in the book. An example of this would be how Billy’s friends, who most of them were much older than he, would take him out on Saturdays to Dorchester and they would teach him “the art of snatching items” from convenience stores (155) Laub and Sampson agree with this theory of learning by association. It is important to see the correlation between peers and self and the values they share. Rather than be independent, the “learning offender” adopts the values of his
Strain theory suggests that crime is a result of people’s goals and the means available to achieve them. Nino Brown’s ultimate goal is to obtain the American Dream which means having a lot of money. It is implied in his criminal behavior that he does not view the legitimate means as a way of achieving that goal. As a man who is undereducated and Black, the normal means of achieving the American Dream are pail in comparison to the illegal means. In fact, he sees the illegal means as more effective; this is the Anomie. The Anomie theory holds that socially defined goals are mandated, but the means to achieve them are stratified by class and society. The Cash Money Brothers program The Carter is built on a culture of poverty that has developed abnormally as a result of crack cocaine, and crime becomes the answer as a result of a breakdown in family, school, and employment. The Social Disorganization theory, in New Jack City, would mean that the criminal behavior demonstrated by the Cash Money Brothers is direct result of a serious degradation in the quality of capable guardians, the school system, and the absence of legitimate jobs stemming from Raegonomics. Therefore, the drive for material wealth dominates and undermines social and community values, thereby, providing room for criminal behavior to become more appealing and effective
The social construction of myths of crime and criminal justice seems to follow a series of recurrent patterns. These patterns allow for an unprecedented amount of social attention to be focused upon a few isolated criminal events or issues. This attention is promoted by intense, but often brief, mass media coverage of a select problem. Intense social concern of an issue is achieved by a variety of means from the mass media, government, law enforcement officials, interpersonal communications, and the interests of reform groups whom all play major roles in focusing the publics attention on select so...
Many people in the world today criticize and objectify specific people, merely by their outward appearance, as more likely to commit crime or other violent acts. A theory well known to criminologists is one devised by criminologists of the Chicago school, scholars whose main area of focus were urban, impoverished areas, and called their findings the Social Disorganization Theory in which it offers an idea as to why crime occurs in urban settings. The theory explains how American society is centered on the economy and individual achievement, otherwise known as “The American Dr...
This method is presented accurately when discussing how the first juvenile facility in 1825, The House of Refuges, would discipline it’s youth. “The children were divided into five categories, based on their perceived character[...] On the rewards front, the best of the lot could aspire to a distinctive badge, the punishment system was more elaborate.” This example heavily emphasizes cause & effect based off the fact that the inmates would be rewarded with a badge for their good behavior, or if they were acting up their disciplines would vary from loss of “play hours” to even corporeal punishment. Cause & Effect can be conveyed throughout the whole book if you look at the aspect that the kids who grew up with a corrupted household usually resort to violence, it will then get them sent to prison which furthermore leads to your rights violated. On the other hand if you do have a stable support system, or good behavior you have a lesser chance at being sent to prison. The whole idea that a simple aspect of your life that you have no control over like a corrupted household can affect your life in a positive or negative way is really eye opening because for those kids who do not have family support have to learn this on their own which can be hard, given that they are only
Society expects success from the Saints so the Saints showed successful behavior to the authority. The evidence shown is why did the community, the school, and the police react to the Saints as though they were good, but to the Roughnecks as they were trouble. The police let them go every time they got into trouble because they were the “good” kids. Their parents could pay their way out of things. Being labeled the good ones to the boys it made the things they did good and they did not think any of it was bad, that it was just for fun and a laugh to the boys. The labeling theory that was for the Roughnecks was the bad boys that did everything bad and that they did for fun but really they were doing it to survive. The Society expected mediocre work and showed that, that is what they expected. The evidence that shows this is the Roughnecks as though they were tough, young, criminals who were headed to trouble. Through the people they saw them as bad and they just kept doing bad things because that was was expected of them. They did not expect nothing less though they all together had a C average so they were not too bad. They just needed understanding of what they were going through. The teachers understood why one of the
One of these is normative social influences, this is “the influence others have on us because we want them to like us (King, 2013, p. 447). Andrew shows this when he talks about how he got in detention. Andrew states he bullied a kid, so the kid would think he was cool. You see that Andrew does this disgusting action to this kid so he could be seen as cool. Another social behavior that is seen in the film is the fundamental attribution error, which is observers overestimate the importance of the internal traits and underestimate the importance of external factors when explaining others behaviors. We see the fundamental attribution error a lot in this movie. First we see it with Brian, everyone sees him as smart. But when Brian explains that he failed shop class people were surprised; they never thought this kid would ever fail, since he is so smart. Another is with Bender, they see him as disrespectful and aggressive. What they do not know is, at home, he is being verbally and physically abused by his dad and has to defend himself. This can bring us to conformity, which is a change in a person’s behavior to get more closely with group standards. We see this with all five of the students. Let’s start with Andrew, he covers up his hatred for him father so he wouldn’t be seen as abnormal. Then you have Brian who talks about contemplating suicide for failing a class. He did not want to
Menace II Society, a film about a young Black man who has lived the “hustler” lifestyle and is struggling to leave it, is a perfect example of deviance as the main character, Caine Lawson, and the characters around him violate many of society’s norms. Throughout the film, the characters swear incessantly, carry around guns and drugs as most people would carry around cell phones, commit street crimes, especially burglary and mugging, on a regular basis, and beat and kill people unscrupulously. The following quote captures just how deviant Caine and the other characters in this film were, “[Caine] went into the store just to get a beer. Came out an accessory to murder and armed robbery. It's funny like that in the hood sometimes. You never knew what was gonna happen, or when” (Albert Hughes). Why would Caine consider these crimes “funny”, or rather, so insignificant? What caused Caine to become so deviant? The answers to such questions were woven into the plot of the film and will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
...erhaps in another social location, with different social forces, Will may not have become a deviant but rather took on another role. If Will had been socialized properly, with normal parents and friends, perhaps his role and identity would be different. In different social locations, there are different institutions what require different roles and there are different social forces to control these roles. The sociological perspective has many concepts that examine the underlying reasons for why Will’s actions and identity are the way they are. Social location determines all aspects of one’s life, how they are going to be socialized, what friends they are going to have, what career, what role they will take on, etc.
Cromer (2004;394) highlights a good example of how middle class people who commit crimes are viewed differently to those from poorer background. On January 1984, Dereck Roth was found dead next to his taxi, it was discovered that the murders were middle class boys from respectable families. This caused a moral panic and permissiveness was regularly cited as the underlying cause of the murder.