Sociological Perpectives Within Shawshank State Penitentiary

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To better understand the sociological perspectives within Shawshank state penitentiary, we must first comprehend the environment in which these actions take place. Similar to that of a bureaucracy, Shawshank state penitentiary has a hierarchy of authority, impersonality between workers, and employment based on technical qualifications. For instance, Samuel Norton is an educated man with such qualifications to lead the prison as the warden and by default is in responsible for all other employees within the penitentiary. He regularly commands other guards most notably, Captain Byron T. Hadley to carry out various tasks throughout the penitentiary.

In our society, once an individual is convicted of a criminal act they are most often sent to a correctional facility. These individuals are extracted from their familiar environment and are integrated with other deviant individuals. To survive in this new environment, an individual must adapt to their surroundings through the means of establishing a new identity and accepting their role as a prisoner within their community. This may b...

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