Delinquency Vs. Middle-Class

Delinquency is a term that pertains to the criminal acts and status offense committed by our youth and is nothing short when referring to gang violence in the United States. Although rating crime consistency in relation to social class is controversial. Crime rates are often gathered through crime statistics which are lacking in classifying people appropriately. Statistics can also be less reliable if police are more likely to arrest suspects considered to be lower-class than the middle-class. Nevertheless, it was once believed that youth gang affiliation we something that only pertained to the norms and values of the lower-class culture. In fact, Albert Cohen believed delinquency by the middle-class emerged from the lower-class socioeconomic …show more content…
Street gangs are different than that of a church youth group because street gangs usual have some sort of criminal initiation practice and dress in such a way as to distinguish their gang affiliation. The young people of the middle-class and lower-class join gangs for many different reasons. Some join gangs and participate in delinquent behavior because they are following in the footstep of their parent. Others join because they seek excitement, status, monetary gain, drug and alcohol use, and even protection because of a heighten risk of victimization (Alder et al., 2013). In addition, experts argue that oftentimes youth involved in gang memberships come from various backgrounds such as those resulting from mental illness, poor parental supervision, abusive, and dysfunctional homes (Alder et al., 2013, p. 161). In other words, youth often believe gangs can provide them with a sense of belonging or something they cannot otherwise …show more content…
Most crimes are committed in urban areas and are attributed to the population, lack of law enforcement, and economic health of the neighborhoods. Studies show crimes often occurs close to home, school, near commercial business establishments, and areas where drug dealers were prevalently seen on the streets (Alder et al., 2013, p. 43). According to Adler et al. (2013), the youth today are also more likely to commit crimes using guns in robberies, gang wars, and for random violence. Studies show that youth who owned illegal guns or have friends who owned illegal guns was related to gang membership. In fact, illegal gun ownership and drug use are related to street crime in urban neighborhoods has spread to the suburbs (p. 274). Drug use is also related to violence and contributing to unemployment and truancy failure at school (Alder et al., 2013, p. 52). This coincides with Delbert Elliot and Travis Hirschi study that found a high correlation between delinquency and poor performance in school (Alder et al., 2013, p.