Criticism Of Merton's Strain Theory

Instead the focus was on what was facilitating it-such as criminogenic environments due to economic hardship, broken homes, and potential mental conflicts. Thus the Progressive period was more interested in the government treating rather than judging the offender, and felt that keeping one incarcerated made it impossible to rehabilitate them into normal society. Consequently, probation, parole, and indeterminate sentencing became solutions to crime. The medical model views crime as being caused by underlying psychological factors. This placed a strong reliance on psychological remedies for crime, including psychological analysis, diagnosis, and treatment of the root causes of criminal behavior similar to the treatment of a patient with a mental illness.

David Foster Wallace argues that reality can be mundane. However, if people focus on what others are going through, then they can learn to empathize and understand humanity better. A behavior is a snap shot of how that person is acting in that moment. There are lots of moments where behaviors may not accurately describe someone. If people are constantly operating unconsciously and only ever taking what they see face value then they are not relating or understanding others; even more what they are thinking about other’s is stereotypical and possibly hurtful.

The high incarceration rate of Black Americans has pervasive and chronically negative stigmas regarding the social and economic vitality of the Black American community, such as a lack of democratic participation and violence within urban communities (Burris-Kitchen & Burris, 2011). According to Forman Jr. (2012), some of 5 the negative affects of systemic racism of Black Americans born into the hip-hop generation who have been convicted include the ineligibility of public assistance programs such as health care, food stamps, public housing, student loans, and some employment opportunities. Additionally, many of the individuals suffering from the stigma of incarceration come from backgrounds of disadvantage such as single parent homes, low

On top of this, he argues that the white middle class are unrelenting with their methods of depriving black advancement in American society. Knowledge of this incites many blacks to occupy dead-end jobs, or to settle for mediocrity in the face of adversity. A large number of black males in America find themselves forced to take jobs that offer no security, or socioeconomic growth. He also contends that many blacks are not very literate and therefore left behind in cultural revolutions like the information age. For twelve months between 1962 and 1963, Liebow and a group of researchers studied the behavior of a group of young black men who lived near and frequently hung around a street corner in a poor black neighborhood in downtown Washington, D.C. Liebow’s participant observation revealed the numerous obstacles facing black men on a day-to-day basis, including the structural and individual levels of racial discrimination propagated by whites in society.

The principle in law that one is innocent until proven guilty has created much discourse. There are those who feel that the moment that one is arrested, there is reasonable belief that they committed the crime. However, there are those who feel that just as the principle states, one is, and should be taken as a victim and the outcome could be either way: guilty or not guilty. In fact, this argument is supported by the many cases of malicious prosecutions and mistaken identities.

Elijah Anderson’s commentary Code of the Streets describes the unwritten laws in urban neighborhoods. Anderson considers the code to be a response to the stigma of race, excessive drug use, lack of high paying jobs, and lack of hope for the future. Respect or “juice” is at the heart of the code and in this environment, an individual is defined by the respect he commands from others (Anderson 6). Anderson argues that the poor have a different system of values than the middle and upper classes. He describes families in the lower class as either “decent” or “street (Anderson 2).

In 1985 Robert Agnew a sociologist come to an interest of studying the theory and finds a potential for the theory in explaining several causes of crime in society, but due to its limitation he developed and reformulated the theory to widen its dimension or scope. After revising the theory he come up into General strain theory of crime and builds its foundation in 1992. General strain theory argues that frustrations and anger leads someone to deviance and may result into committing a crime (Agnew, 1992). GST defines strains as negative life events and conditions which are commonly disliked by the people who experience it or negative experiences of a person in a given group (Agnew, 1992; 2001; 2006). Strain is often classified in two distinct types, the Objective Strain and the Subjective Strain.

People are even afraid to come near their neighborhood, they fear that they will be attacked. The residents of Mango Street are talked about as criminals, just because of their race and their poverty. As a result of being Hispanic, Esperanza and those around her are viewed by other, higher classes, as a minority. Hispanics at that time made less money and were seen as lessers compared to people in the higher class. Higher class people believed they were superior to her.

Segregation became a way of life after the Plessy v. Ferguson act was passed. The act claimed that all facilities would be "separate, but equal" for blacks and whites. However, African-American facilities were often run-down and horribly cheap compared to those of their white counterparts. Discrimination against black voters was also a major issue of the time. Many white supremacists believed that the African-Americans lacked the intellectual capacities needed to vote, and did everything in their power to prevent them from having a part in the democratic system.

1984 Synthesis Essay Poverty negatively influences how the minds of people work in the world. The fact that poverty exists itself, obstructs people from changing their circumstances in what is known as “the cycle of poverty.” The lower class is incredibly disadvantaged in that it lacks the necessary social and economic resources needed to increase chances of social mobility. In return, the absence of these resources may increase poverty. Therefore, the lower class is unable to change its situation because the majority believes that any efforts to climb the social ladder is highly inefficient.

Michele Alexander has stated that the marginalization, stigmatization, and the discrimination of people of color who constitutes to the new racial caste is not due to them being black, but rather it is the impact of falling into a “non-racialized “ criminal justice system at the epicenter of what is known is mass incarceration. The mass incarceration of the minorities and more so those involved in non-violent drug offenses and the disproportionate application of capital punishments for those killing whites and other disparities in sentencing all point to a legal system that still treat the minorities more harshly when compared to the whites. At one time, Stevenson went to prison, and he was forced to go back to his car to show that he was indeed an attorney. The correction department officers wanted to strip search him and wanted him to sign a book that he was visiting the prison. Contrastingly, attorneys are not supposed to sign the book.

Blacked Out Most Americans are afraid of African Americans. Why, we ask? Most of us don’t know why we do, is it their physical appearance or is it the fact that they have a different skin tone? In Chapter 5: Black Men of The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner, Glassner argues that the media exaggerates the excessive attention paid to African-Americans (Glassner 109). Throughout the chapter, Glassner exposes us to secrets and truths about how the media makes us fear African-Americans, they feed us irrelevant information that make it seem like blacks are still a lower class and therefore treating them like they are still slaves.

Do you think that snitching is a bad or good thing? Some people might think that it could be dangerous. Well here is a little about snitching, and then you can make up your mind. Not everyone agrees about the definition on snitching. Bill Maxwell wrote "Start Snitching", in which he talks about how crime is targeting one group.

Jim Crow laws repressed many black americans in the 1850s and the repercussions of that are still affecting black society today. Similarly in the 1800s woman were legally restricted from many of the things men were and still are still unfairly treated to in society

By not providing loans to certain areas those areas continued to be impoverished. Without loans people were stuck in low income areas and could never claim a better stake in the American society. Escensilaly “redlining” kept people from obtaining the American dream that non-minority groups had the opportunity and means to obtain. The poverty of the area is not only is seen in the state of the housing, but also in the public facilities provided. In an article, in the Atlanta Backstar, Taylor Gordon states that “The lack of access to quality education in black neighborhoods is apart of a vicious cycle that leaves many people in the Black community struggling to fight off poverty”(Gordon, 1).