Stop Snitching Theory

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What is “stop snitching?” According to Woldoff & Weiss (2010), the movement of ‘stop-snitching campaign’ started in the early 1990s which resulted in ‘stop-snitching’ culture. The ‘stop-snitching phenomenal is also referred to the ‘code of silence,’ which demonstrated in street culture especially among street criminals. The act of snitching has conventionally been connected with police informants — but since the early 1990s it has moved into a cultural phenomenon implanted within the code of the street. Regardless of the utilization of the term, some academics have connected attitudes in Black populations toward collaborating with law enforcement in the past to misuse African American informants to control slaves and locate civic right leaders. …show more content…

The ‘stop snitching’ is a phenomenon that is very prevalent in the African American communities. In the United States, it is recorded that African American as a group are disproportionately poor and often live in area with high crime rate. Research has tried to explain racial inequalities in urban crime. Most of the research has focuses on the context of poverty, which focuses on the structural changes in economic in our culture. Conflict theorists proposed that because of the poverty in some of these communities, it has led to individuals to develop the concept of ‘stop snitching’ because illegal activities for some of these individuals are a way of life. This means that if another people see another committing an illegal act, they are more likely to report it to the authority. As a result, African Americans are more likely to live in communities with concentration of poverty, low levels of educational attainment, low income and joblessness (Wilson, …show more content…

The conflict theorist proposed that the rich and powerful create regulations and law enforcements carry out these laws. The concept of the ‘stop snitching’ in our society denote the rich and the powerful. For instance, powerful criminals in some of these communities get away with crimes because they know how to cover their tracks by silencing others by giving them financial assistance. The powerful and visible criminals reward those who keep silent by providing financial assistance to them and promising to protect them in the mere future (Venkatesh, 2000; Wilkinson,

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