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Summary Of When A Heart Turns Rock Solid By Timothy Black

2005 Words9 Pages

In the book, When a Heart Turns Rock Solid by Timothy Black, the lives of three Puerto Rican brothers is uncovered. The parents of these boys, Juan and Angela moved them around in their youth. They were born in Puerto Rico and then were moved to Yonkers, NY where Julio started first grade but ended up finishing first grade back in Puerto Rico. Julio the started and finished second and third grade in Yonkers, NY before moving back to Puerto Rico again and remained there for four years. After the four years in Puerto Rico, they moved back to America for good (Black 17). Juan and Angela realized that Yonkers, NY was not a good place to raise their children since they were exposed to street violence at a young age so they moved the family again …show more content…

It was not easy for Julio to get to this point, but he eventually found his way by having a wife and daughter and without ever going to prison (x). The three criminological theories that relate to Julio and his journey is conflict theory, social conflict theory, and strain theory. Conflict theory is when the people in power create social and economic environments that facilitate crime in the areas where the people who have the least power live (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer 180). Conflict theory relates to Julio because “he had shot but not killed three men on Main Street and had left the gang before the federal investigation” (Black 112). The society where Julio lived was not good, everyone had to know how to survive on the streets in order to survive in life. When it came down to him having to shoot rival gang members or die himself, he decided to shoot. After this had happened and the gun jammed and the men did not die, he decided to leave the gang. He wanted no part in this life anymore, being pressured to be in a gang and have to potentially kill people was too much for …show more content…

Fausto is one of the two brothers that had gone to prison, and he had one daughter with an older woman, and the daughter ended up dying. Fausto had probably the worst life out of the brothers, which is seen among middle children. There are three criminal behavior theories that relate to Fausto which are; conflict theory, rational choice theory, and social conflict theory. Conflict theory relates to Fausto because it shows that the life he was given, in the society that he lived in was a great source of his anger and rebellion. Black states in the book that, “Fausto attributes some of his anger and rebellion to early fatherhood … in addition to the stress of being a young father of a very sick child, Fausto was also suffering the indignities of school failure … he couldn’t read or write in English or in Spanish” (49). The society and culture in which Fausto lived created social and economic environments that facilitated his criminal behavior. He was angry at his life, so he rebelled, forcing him on the streets to make bad

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