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Whitey Bulger's Theory On The Delinquent Subculture

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Criminal Behavior

James Joseph Bulger III (better known as) Whitey Bulger’s criminal behavior started early on in life. Whitey ran away to join the circus at ten years old. According to Biography.com, “Whitey Bulger was first arrested when he was 14 years old, for stealing, and his criminal record continued to escalate from there. As a youth, he was arrested for larceny, forgery, assault and battery, and armed robbery and served five years in a juvenile reformatory. Upon his release, he joined the Air Force where he served time in military jail for assault before being arrested for going AWOL. Nonetheless, he received an honorable discharge in 1952.” (Biography.com) After the military, Bulger returned to Boston and committed multiple bank …show more content…

Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice states that Cohen's investigation of gangs revealed that the groups were mostly lower-class males who seemed to be retaliating against a world that had given them empty promises regarding the "American Dream." Cohen's theory on the delinquent subculture also predicts that the existence of the subculture would likely draw in lower-status persons exposed to it, therefore creating more delinquency among anyone who might believe that their only opportunities for progress existed in the ranks of gangs.” …show more content…

“The theory of social disorganization states a person’s physical and social environments are primarily responsible for the behavioral choices that a person makes. At the core of social disorganization theory, is that location matters when it comes to predicting illegal activity. Shaw and McKay noted that neighborhoods with the highest crime rates have at least three common problems, physical dilapidation, poverty, and a higher level of ethnic and culture mixing. Shaw and McKay claimed that delinquency was not caused at the individual level, but is a normal response by normal individuals to abnormal conditions. Social disorganization theory is widely used as an important predictor of youth violence and crime.” (Mark Bond, Ed.D) There is little doubt that South Boston or Boston, in general, could fit this theory just as well as

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