Los Angeles County

The extremes of gang violence and racism in our country were brought to light in the movie “The Freedom writers.” The main characters of this movie were just students, starting high school as freshmen. Ironically, they had already faced challenges in their lives that most people could never even imagine. This resulted in their tough outlook on life, and involvement in gang violence. To add to the mess, the gangs were strongly divided on racial lines. This separated the students, and even brought…

Trying to address the question of why youth join gangs requires the examination of multiple factors, and preferably, multiple theories. Social disorganization theory explains that the place where an individual grows up matters – disordered neighborhoods lead youth to join gangs. Due to its overemphasis on disorganization within neighbourhoods, however, social disorganization theory is not able to assess every factor that causes youth to join gangs. In this paper, I argue that youth join gangs…

There are many social theories and concepts. Yet there are some that are very noticeable in the movie, Freedom Writers. The lives of these students are very difficult. Since the neighborhoods they lived in were very rough, deviance and crime were very common factors that were involved in their lives as gang members. As one character once stated in the movie. To be a member of the gang is not to protect yourself but also protect your fellow “Brother”, in other words meaning the other gang…

Teaching Justice “You can’t handle the truth!”, this infamous line from A Few Good Men is what sparked my interest in the court room as a young child. I watched this movie in amazement that someone could have so much passion in the job they worked in, something so foreign and unfamiliar to me. My childhood consisted of crime television shows more than cartoons which only increased my desire to look for a career in the courtroom. As I became more aware of the legal struggle of my people, I…

Groups are dynamic arrangements that are always existent in society and have a strong connection with identity and behaviours (Turner et al, 1987). There are many groups that are associated with youth, including; football hooligans, political and educational, friends and peers and charities. It has been said that social identity can have an effect on the behaviour of a group (Crisp and Turner, 2010). The term street gang is best described as a number of people who form a group, who all have…

Rites of passage have been used by almost all cultures since the beginning to mark the transition an individual takes from youth to adulthood. In many ancient cultures it has involved ceremonies often religious in nature. In typical modern day American society, the movement from adolescence to adulthood also comes with certain rites of passage. In the late teen years many youths have the desire for more independence. Many will get an afterschool job; this gives them some financial freedom. Next…

The Fight for Education Getting an education is very important in life. Being well educated helps give people opportunities as to what they want to do in their life. By going to school, people are preparing themselves to have a successful future, but in the movie Freedom Writers, students struggle to gain an education because of all the gang violence that surrounds them. Everyday, when they walk outside of their homes, they fear what may happen. To these individuals it is hard to care about…

In the book of “The Sweet revenge of Celia Door”, Celia Door is presented as an incoming freshman with interesting motive of revenge towards a person who she she holds an immense hatred against but the new experiences of high school confuses her to choose between friendship and revenge. In the book, Karen presents Celia Door with many struggles and some common conflicts of a typical student who goes through high school life throughout the book. In the book, a conflict that is introduced in the…

Many of these gangs were formed and originated by Latinos in Los Angeles as a reaction to issues like social exclusion. A large topic of social exclusion experienced by the Latino community is that of their exclusion from justice and economic and physical security. Without access to a basic system of justice, people…

Ross Kemp has made documentaries since October of 2006 including several series about extreme hardships in India, Gangs in New Zealand, South Africa, Los Angeles and more. Ross Kemp was a British actor turned investigative journalist and is best known for his documentary series called Ross Kemp on Gangs. It’s an award winning T.V. series that focused on gangs and gang violence in different parts of the world…