In Randol Contreras’ book, “The Stickup Kids” he does an ethnographic study of what is known as the Crack Era in the South Bronx. Contreras studies how society shaped people growing up in the South Bronx that led them into the world of drugs and crime in order to fulfill the American Dream. He does so by providing detailed field notes, creating a sociological framework of how components such as culture, deviance, socialization, crime and race contribute to the society as a whole. In this book, Contreras specifically studies a small community of friends in his neighborhood and how their life changes along with the loss of jobs and deindustrialization of the economy. Contreras starts off by describing how his friends started to become “stickup”
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This connects to Charles Cooley 's looking glass self theory where the Gus and Neno described themselves as “animals” who did not show any emotion when they were torturing drug dealers in order to instill fear in others. They justified this type of torture through the capitalist ideology. In capitalism only the strongest will survive and they had to be persistent in order to get the dealers to tell them where they hid their money and drugs. According to Edwin Sutherland’s differential association, deviance is learned through association with those who break the rules and that is what happened to kids like Neno and Pablo. They wanted to follow Gus’ example and be feared because it made them feel powerful. They did so by “threatening violence” and “portraying a violent image” (Contreras 167). Although torturing people conflicted with their emotions at some points, the thrill of successfully committing a crime lured them along with their need for money. They only thought about the reward and glory at the end of the …show more content…
In “The Stickup Kids,” disadvantaged youths are constantly struggling due to the loss of jobs and their poor surroundings. They were forced into the drug world to find a way out and became stigmatized individuals who were labeled as dangerous and criminals. In order to improve the lives of these communities, government officials should enforce and regulate better policies to aid these youths. They could do so by providing financial support and a safer neighborhood. Also, instead of putting all drug related criminals to jail, they should help them to rehabilitate because jail only made them more violent and lose hope for the world around them. Sociological thinking can help people from the outside community see disadvantaged communities in a different perspective and find the root of problems occurring within our
This connects to Charles Cooley 's looking glass self theory where the Gus and Neno described themselves as “animals” who did not show any emotion when they were torturing drug dealers in order to instill fear in others. They justified this type of torture through the capitalist ideology. In capitalism only the strongest will survive and they had to be persistent in order to get the dealers to tell them where they hid their money and drugs. According to Edwin Sutherland’s differential association, deviance is learned through association with those who break the rules and that is what happened to kids like Neno and Pablo. They wanted to follow Gus’ example and be feared because it made them feel powerful. They did so by “threatening violence” and “portraying a violent image” (Contreras 167). Although torturing people conflicted with their emotions at some points, the thrill of successfully committing a crime lured them along with their need for money. They only thought about the reward and glory at the end of the …show more content…
In “The Stickup Kids,” disadvantaged youths are constantly struggling due to the loss of jobs and their poor surroundings. They were forced into the drug world to find a way out and became stigmatized individuals who were labeled as dangerous and criminals. In order to improve the lives of these communities, government officials should enforce and regulate better policies to aid these youths. They could do so by providing financial support and a safer neighborhood. Also, instead of putting all drug related criminals to jail, they should help them to rehabilitate because jail only made them more violent and lose hope for the world around them. Sociological thinking can help people from the outside community see disadvantaged communities in a different perspective and find the root of problems occurring within our