In a famous play Antigone, Sophocles once wrote, “All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” Crime is an act or omission of an act for which the state can apply sanctions (5.1). We all know of someone that has committed some sort of crime. The criminal law in any society acts and prescribes the punishments to be meted out to violators. The rate of crime is constantly changing up and down. Honestly, I do not know any ways to decrease such crimes as murder, domestic violence, sex trafficking, theft, and much more. However, if marijuana was legal in all states I do believe that would take a lot of people out of prison and jail. When we people come out of jail the …show more content…
Moreover, people at the low end of social status, poor, are more likely to get arrested for the crimes. However, we all know or sometimes believe that crime is not always evenly spread throughout the social classes. Poor people are more likely to commit crimes, and blacks are more likely to commit crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, and other index crimes (Kornblum ,5.4). Sometimes in society, we see that rich people get a slap on the wrist when they commit a crime; whereas poor people get the whole book at their neck it …show more content…
However, within the first few minutes of the video, the speaker tells me drug dealers do not make any money. It is crazy how selling drugs are the same domain as working for somewhere like Kroger. I can relate to the fact how the lowest paid employees take care of the boss. Kroger employees work their butts off for the manager and assistant managers can reap all the benefits. Dealing drugs is one of the uncongenial ways to make money to take care of the family. Sometimes people must do what they must do. Yes, this does have implications for sociologists. The reason considers the impact that certain products like crack cocaine have on local communities. Crack and other drugs also set many impoverished communities back because of the catastrophic effects of addiction or imprisonment (Levitt). It also affected black communities far more than white communities, contributing greatly to the widened gap in racial
Frank Trippett, in his excerpt from “A Red Light for Scofflaws”, claims that these days, every law-abiding citizen commits crimes no matter how big or how small. First, he provides general facts about the average citizen and what they do that goes against the law. He continues by stating that more and more people are becoming criminals by their actions. Trippett’s goal is to inform the public that whether a bank is being robbed or trash is being thrown out the window, it is still a crime. The author asserts an informative and knowledgeable tone for anyone who may think the word “crime” only has a strong meaning when it is related to a life-threatening or dangerous act.
Provocative and eye-opening, The Stickup Kids urges us to explore the ravages of the drug trade through weaving history, biography, social structure, and drug market forces. It offers a revelatory explanation for drug market violence by masterfully uncovering the hidden social forces that produce violent and self-destructive individuals. Part memoir, part penetrating analysis, this book is engaging, personal, deeply informed, and entirely
This African-American culture within Detroit shapes and gives meaning to the lives of Dude Freeman and Rodney Phelps. The overarching cultural element of African-American culture within Detroit affecting the two main interlocutors is the street drug trade. The culture of the street drug trade can be thought of as having three overarching effects on the adolescents which shape and give meaning to their lives, economic effects, kinship effects, and political effects.
As a REACH member, I had the privilege of witnessing a support group for substance abusers and alcoholics. One man, in particular, spoke of his addiction to cocaine. I listened to his speech that described his introduction to the substance, the hardships he faced, and his slow but successful recovery. I, though, had one question in mind: to what measures will users and even sellers go for drugs? Sudhir Venkatesh’s Gang Leader For a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets answers my question.
He gives heavy claims and statistics throughout his article, using the rhetorical appeal logos. Hart claims that in the late 1980’s the “majority of crack users were white” and “most drug users buy their drugs from dealers within their own racial group.” While Hart certainly expresses these statements confidently, he does not support them with statistics or sources. It is difficult to believe that the majority of drug users in the crack epidemic of the late 1980’s were white when this issue was felt by numerous black individuals in the inner cities. Hart hopes to persuade his audience to believe him with these passionate, strong statements but fails to provide support for these claims.
He mentions that some young men sell drugs because they have no choice and nothing to lose in society. He acknowledge that choice is immoral. However, the resources available to the young men are limited. He states that “the creative social and cultural capital that the boys developed in response to being prevented from acquiring capital to succeed in mainstream institutions” (Rios:98). Moreover, he argues that the punishments meted out by the criminal justice system usually fail to support rehabilitation and social reintegration.
The education children receive in predominantly black neighborhoods is often sub-par, with high dropout rates. Subsequently 65% of state inmates have not completed high school. Another major issue is job opportunities; in major cities with a high black population the ability to obtain and keep a decent paying job is difficult and therefore crime is one of the only solutions. More than 50% of inmates earned less than $10,000 a year, were unemployed, or part time (8E p. 17). The close correlation between black Americans and crime is explained as
Pride can be one of man's strongest qualities. In Sophocles' play, Antigone, the Theme of pride becomes the cause for destruction for both Creon and Antigone in the play.. Creon's Pride blinds him to the injustice he commits against Antigone and the gods. Antigone's pride leaves her no choice but to be killed because of her beliefs. They Both automatically surrender to their own hubris and demonstrate how uncontrolled pride leads to personal downfalls and destruction in Antigone.
The balance between power and privilege is vital to any social issue that occurs. The class that has limited materials and representation in society are typically those who suffer the most. The inequality between classes exhibits and predicts the extent to which substance abuse is associated with race and economic disadvantage. Moreover, those of higher classes gain more opportunities due to their exposure of resources and good financial standing whereas those of a lower class do not gain the same opportunities and therefore fall victim to crime such as drug
Families that are poor or have a low income are more likely to commit crimes for the purpose of their own needs to survive. “It is a fact that neighborhoods where the poor are concentrated are more prone to high crime rates, and poor residents are the most common victims of crimes” (1). The best explanation for this is that poorer people have the same needs as a regular middle-class citizen. The poor citizens need certain things to help him or her live a healthy life, such as healthcare, food stamps, and more employment options. One may argue that healthcare is too expensive and that food stamps have been taken away from many people.
In his article, “Toward a Policy on Drugs,” Elliot Currie discusses “the magnitude and severity of our drug crisis” (para. 21), and how “no other country has anything resembling the American drug problem” (para. 21). The best way to describe America’s drug problem is that it is a hole continuously digs itself deeper. America’s drug issues were likely comparable to other country’s at one point in time, but today it can be blamed on the “street cultures” (para. 21) that continue to use and spread the use of illegal drugs. These street cultures transcend the common stereotype of drug users, such as low income communities in cities or welfare recipients, and can be found in every economic class and location. They are groups of people who have
The tragedy, Antigone by Sophocles is a well developed take on the fight between who is applicable to be the protagonist of a story. In most stories, plays, poems, written works in general from the first literary works discovered surrounded the Hero’s Journey. The tragedy of Antigone is the one play that seems to accept Joseph Campbell’s theory but master the ideals of a protagonist but still battle for the position at the same time. It’s more or less a toss up to put it simply, but there are strong events and decisions within the tragedy that unfolds somewhat who the antagonist and protagonist is. Similar to the characters in Finding Nemo, Nemo and his father, Marlin, are a debatable pair in deciding who is the lead in the film.
Drug dealing provided the necessary income for them to be able to survive. Thus, these types of experiences would future alienate them from mainstream society and drive them into the underground economy of crack, the only place where they can go to make money, and regain a certain sense of dignity and
The initial impact from socioeconomic status begins through the influence of an individual’s community and resources provided to nourish the well-being of the person. However, when a strong community or welfare is absent, the prosperity of the individual often declines. In the Journal of Economic Issues, Theodore Chiricos notes “...that poor individuals from juveniles to adults are more likely to be arrested and charged than middle and upper-income individuals (41-52)” (Chiricos 519). Communities with little access to substantial resources for intolerance against neglect of the law encourages disobedience to authority.
Crime offers a way in which poor people can obtain material goods they cannot attain through legal means. Often, threat or force helps them acquire even more goods, encouraging them to commit more violent acts such as robbery and rape. Thus, poverty increases crime