In this paper, I argue that youth join gangs because of a lack of parental supervision, school in-fluence, and socioeconomic status. Differential Association is able explain peer influence and school influence as reasons for youth gang involvement, but it is unable to account for why socioeconomic status lead youth to join gangs. This paper argues that youth join gangs because society presents them with a lack of opportunities, schools have a lack of resources, and their peers, who are in gangs, offer them a home that the other people in their life cannot.
The theory Differential Association, created by the criminologist Donald Sutherland, states that criminal behaviour is culturally transmitted from generation to generation. The belief is that the set of values that an individual is exposed to in their daily life is a strong predictor of whether they will live a criminal lifestyle or not. If a criminal culture is prevalent in a neighbourhood then its in-habitants are more likely to view criminal behaviours favourably.
Differential Association theory frames the issue of crime as a culture war, and that it depends on the kind of …show more content…
One reason for why schools are responsible for this is that some of them have unsafe environ-ments, which can cause students to seek out gangs for personal protection (Yiu, H.L, and G.D. Gott-fredson 2013). Furthermore, a lack of opportunity from conventional education has pushed youth to-wards gangs, since they can offer material possessions easily through criminal means (Alleyne, E., and J. L. Wood 2011). This occurs because the lack of resources, and opportunity, creates a subset within the student body of people who have given up, and have resorted to alternative, illegal, means for success. The neglect from the school system allows a criminogenic environment to fester where delinquents can transmit their beliefs to other
The theory Differential Association, created by the criminologist Donald Sutherland, states that criminal behaviour is culturally transmitted from generation to generation. The belief is that the set of values that an individual is exposed to in their daily life is a strong predictor of whether they will live a criminal lifestyle or not. If a criminal culture is prevalent in a neighbourhood then its in-habitants are more likely to view criminal behaviours favourably.
Differential Association theory frames the issue of crime as a culture war, and that it depends on the kind of …show more content…
One reason for why schools are responsible for this is that some of them have unsafe environ-ments, which can cause students to seek out gangs for personal protection (Yiu, H.L, and G.D. Gott-fredson 2013). Furthermore, a lack of opportunity from conventional education has pushed youth to-wards gangs, since they can offer material possessions easily through criminal means (Alleyne, E., and J. L. Wood 2011). This occurs because the lack of resources, and opportunity, creates a subset within the student body of people who have given up, and have resorted to alternative, illegal, means for success. The neglect from the school system allows a criminogenic environment to fester where delinquents can transmit their beliefs to other