...David Garcia SOC 240 Professor Ortiz Homelessness and Deviance Homelessness is something that is widespread throughout the United States as well as many other parts of the world, some places being more severe than others. Regardless of where the place is, a stigma is placed on those who are homeless, often being labeled as deviant. Those who are homeless, unemployed, or those receiving welfare are often viewed as lazy, reluctant to work, and possibly a drug addict. Also, assumptions are often made that those who are homeless are where they’re at as a result of their own actions. As a result of being homeless, individuals are left to fend for themselves in the streets, and ultimately these individuals are more vulnerable to using drugs, alcohol, committing crimes, and even prostitution. This only makes the people who already label these homeless individuals deviant as even more deviant. I argue that homelessness is not a form of deviance, that it is not a personal choice to be homeless but that there are conditions that are out of those individuals control that can lead to homelessness. It is more of an economic and lack of information issue than it is an issue of whether it is deviant or not. Homelessness itself isn’t deviant, but under certain circumstances it can lead to deviant behavior. As Jeffery Chaichana Peterson states on his article on homelessness (2012), “As a result of urban deprivation, economic decline, a rise in housing costs, and a decline in blue-collar wages...
Words: 2783 - Pages: 12
...Trend……………………………………………15 Statistics on Single-Parent Families and Juvenile Delinquency…………………21 Case Study……………………………………………………………………….23 Theories…………………………………………………………………………..27 Criticisms………………………………………………………………………...32 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….34 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..36 Delinquency 3 Research Proposal The goal of this research paper is to explore the topic of juvenile delinquency and to analyze the cause of such behavior. The topic of most interest is how the family structure plays a role in delinquent behavior and what can be said about the so called broken home. There is a lot of research in criminal justice that tries to explore the reasons behind people’s behavior and this paper is intending to address youth who have been involved in the system. By exploring this topic I hope to get a better understanding of juvenile delinquency facts and trends as well as see what issues play a role in this behavior. There is a lot of research required to narrow my topic so that I can focus in on a point of interest. By looking at the history of juvenile delinquency and particularly the broken home theory a lot insight can be gained on this topic. I will also need to take a look at juvenile...
Words: 9153 - Pages: 37
...the United States Lakiara Collins English II` Abstract Teen Pregnancy occur more than you think in the United States. More than 400,000 teen girls, aged 15-19 years old, give birth each year in the US. Having a child during teen years carries high costs emotional, physical, and financial to the mother, father, child, and community. Teen Pregnancy is becoming more popular in the media and from a political, ad educational standpoint. This is an underlying social problem that is now making it known. Teen Pregnancy in the United States “Each year in the U.S. almost one million teenagers become pregnant--at enormous costs to themselves, their children, and society”. (Pregnant Teen Help, Teen Pregnancy Statistics) Some would argue that teen pregnancy is all glorified. Other individuals would protest that it is too influential. Teen pregnancy is a rising social problem in the United States and among other countries. Teen pregnancy is now being publicized as multimedia corporations, with shows such as “16 & Pregnant”, “Teen Mom”, “Maury”, “Secret Life of the American Teenager”, and “Juno”. All of which concentrate on teen pregnancy. These shows or movies could be informational for young people. However, the shows display an altered reality that teen pregnancy is easy, laughs and joy. Despite what the shows might portray teen pregnancy is an uprising national and global epidemic. In the past teen pregnancy has been an underline issue that is vastly taking center stage....
Words: 1908 - Pages: 8
...enormous costs to themselves, their children, and society”. (Pregnant Teen Help, Teen Pregnancy Statistics) Some would argue that teen pregnancy is all glorified. Other individuals would protest that it is too influential. Teen pregnancy is a rising social problem in the United States and among other countries. Teen pregnancy is now being publicized as multimedia corporations, with shows such as “16 & Pregnant”, “Teen Mom”, “Maury”, “Secret Life of the American Teenager”, and “Juno”. All of which concentrate on teen pregnancy. These shows or movies could be informational for young people. However, the shows display an altered reality that teen pregnancy is easy, laughs and joy. Despite what the shows might portray teen pregnancy is an uprising national and global epidemic. In the past teen pregnancy has been an underline issue that is vastly taking center stage. Media, education, and economy are all components to this phenomenon, nevertheless, how are they all connected? All of which will all be addressed in the contents of this paper. Which leaves the burning question, is teen pregnancy accepted into our society as a norm, or is it still a deviant act? First and for most, there are many different definitions of teenage pregnancy depending on the source of the information. However, as a broad definition defines teenage pregnancy as “a female typically between the ages of thirteen and nineteen, typically who hasn’t completed her core education – secondary schools – has few...
Words: 2920 - Pages: 12
...States has helped contribute to juvenile delinquency today. Society needs to recognize problems within the home before trying to find solutions to problems for todays at risk youth in America. Major structural changes inside of the home could adversely affect the raising of juveniles leading to delinquency. Some of the issues I will discuss in my paper are divorce, child abuse, mothers working outside of the home, and single-parent homes. Ineffectively raising a child can cause low self-control and low self-esteem while increasing the risks of delinquency as well. I will argue that with proper supervision, counseling, and monitoring of the behavior of the juvenile, it is possible that society can help eliminate some of the crimes committed by juvenile delinquents. Thesis The changes in family values and structure in the United States has helped contribute to juvenile delinquency today Introduction Family Structure has changed noticeably in the United States over the past several decades. It refers to various family characteristics that affect relationships and how families function. These characteristics include family size, family disruption, and birth order. High rates of divorce, single-parent housing, the spreading of non-parent families and step-families, and the propagation of cohabitation now delineate in American family life. Changes in family structure can be devastating to a child’s well-being, and have the potential to contribute to juvenile delinquency. ...
Words: 4022 - Pages: 17
...Why is the American Crime Rate So High? When compared with other Western-industrialized nations, the United States has the highest crime rate. It is a daunting question as to why, especially in the age we live in now. One might just boil it down to being a consequence of an ongoing population boom, the idea being that when there are more people, there is going to be more criminal activity. While this is obviously true, it is not even coming close to touching on the big picture. There are many societal factors that can influence a person to commit crime, from the hardened street thug to the typical law-abiding citizen. As for what they are doing differently in other western industrialized nations that is resulting in less crime than the United States, it is very hard to come up with a concrete idea as to why. Regardless of the country, the recession (which may be an indicator of criminal behavior) is being felt globally. The mistrust and harsh feelings toward police is just as strong, if not stronger, in other western industrialized nations. The make-up of towns and cities are pretty similar. There are ghettos in every country. There are violent street gangs in every country. Rioting against authority is far more prevalent in other countries, namely England, and they have been known to get quite hostile and violent at times, with deaths occurring in extreme cases. Laws may vary, but the main ideas remain the same in other western industrialized nations. In fact, certain...
Words: 4256 - Pages: 18
...children are subjected to all sorts of situations both good and bad. School systems are much more difficult to deal with nowadays. Most people from older generations still think that school is simple you go to class, go to lunch, bring home your homework and that’s it. This however is not the case anymore. Drugs are making their presence in schools more and more and it is becoming a very big problem. There are more steps that can be taken to help stop present juvenile drug abusers as well as prevent other children from even beginning. For example, programs should be set up for the students, something that will actually interest more students. There should also be support groups for parents who feel lost as to what they should do to guide their children. In 2007 according to the U.S. Census Bureau there were approximately 41,738 children between the ages of 10 and 19 living in the United States. In the same year according to the same source there were 160,410 drug related arrests in the United States involving children between the ages of 10 and 19. This includes possession charges and dealing charges. Keeping in mind that there are far fewer children than criminal arrests, this means that there are some children who get repeated offenses. These numbers alone should be enough to some people to understand how big of a problem this is becoming. Just as an example of how much this is becoming more of a problem, the same source states that in 1990 the total number of juvenile drug related...
Words: 3173 - Pages: 13
...Unit 9: Term Paper – Position Paper Introduction One of the most recent controversial issues in the U.S. juvenile justice system today involves the use of juvenile waivers. It is now possible for juveniles under the age of 18 to be transferred to the adult court system under the waiver provision. Even more surprisingly and depending on the jurisdiction, children as young as thirteen can find themselves in the clutches of the adult court system. Once these children enter the adult system, there is a possibility that a myriad of punishments can be received for their crimes. Of these punishments, life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) appears to be the most stringent and the hardest to swallow. According to a Juvenile Life Without Parole Fact Sheet, “A LWOP sentence is the harshest sentence given short of execution. The sentence means that an individual will not be given the opportunity for parole review and is condemned to die in prison” (Citizens for Juvenile Justice, 2008). For some, the idea of having a child spend the rest of their natural lives behind bars for capital and even noncapital crimes can be daunting and unfair. For many young people, they are at the point in their young lives where they are still trying to figure out who they are and they willingly test certain boundaries. Life in prison without parole attempts to snuff out what little life they have just begun to build. However, many would also argue that if you are capable of doing adult crimes and...
Words: 5182 - Pages: 21
...Christians to today’s rap song lyrics about economic disparities the plight of the minority has been fought for millennium. This research examines the struggle of minorities within the juvenile justice system and the differential rates of adjudication and length of sentencing between the white majority and the black minority juvenile offenders. During the course of this research, additional insights were gained from an internship at a youth correctional center as well as drawing on my own personal experience as a refugee from Gabon. The findings of my research demonstrate that minority offenders do receive harsher sentences than the whites, and that there are several factors contributing to higher rates of juvenile delinquency among African Americans; primarily education and community. To consider the struggle of minorities is important because it creates awareness that the maltreatment of a minority group by the dominant majority often ends in violence and destruction. If we can understand what cause the inequality better, then mankind can live more peacefully and prosperously. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to have a mentor and a RC like Mr. Doug Brown and an advisor Dr. Jackie Burns to help me write my capstone. Mr. Brown served as a facilitator helping to clarify the process and helping to keep me on track with my...
Words: 19434 - Pages: 78
...garnered much sociological interest, which mostly falls into two competing perspectives: cultural studies and public health. In this paper, we review what raves look like today compared to their high point in the 1990s. We then discuss how the cultural studies and public health perspectives define raves and have studied them over time, focusing on the “pet” sociological concepts each has sought to advance. Our analysis of these literatures reveals important differences in rave research by country and over time. We end by discussing the politics associated with the shift in rave research. Introduction Society has been greatly influenced by many alternative scenes, subcultures, or lifestyles oriented around music, youth and young adults (Epstein 1998). Some of the more notable ones include the English punk scene in the 1970s- 1980s, the U.S. jazz (1930s-1940s) and hippie scenes (1970s), and the 1990s rave scenes in the U.K. and U.S. From them have come musical innovation, social identity, fashion and other aesthetic nuances, and mainstream and alternative cultural production. Increasingly, sociology has used scenes and lifestyles to investigate and clarify many of the discipline’s fundamental concepts and ideas. For example, Becker (1963) used the 1940s U.S. jazz scene to elucidate notions of deviant identity, subculture, and social control. In the U.K., scholars from the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) used the English punk...
Words: 9746 - Pages: 39
...Crime and Deviance Revision SCLY 4: Crime and Deviance with Methods in Context Sociology Department Greenhead College SCLY 4: Crime and Deviance with Methods in Context Remember: You have to revise everything, because you have no choice on the exam paper. The specification 1 Different theories of crime, deviance, social order and social control * Different definitions of crime, deviance, social order and social control * The distinction between sociological theories of crime and other theories (eg biological, psychological); crime and deviance as socially constructed * Functionalist theories of crime: Durkheim, anomie, collective conscience; Merton’s strain theory; manifest and latent functions; functionalist subcultural theories * Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of crime: classical Marxism, laws reflecting class interests; Neo-Marxism, hegemony, the CCCS studies, critical and new criminology * Interactionist theories of crime: labelling theory, the self-fulfilling prophecy * Feminist theories of crime: patriarchy, male control of women’s lives * Control theory and other contemporary approaches to crime: social bonds, communitarianism, situational prevention; postmodern theories; Foucault on individualisation and surveillance * Realist theories: New Left Realism and Right Realism * The relevance of the various theories to understanding different types of crime, and their implications for social policy. 2 The social distribution...
Words: 25825 - Pages: 104
...Crime and Deviance Revision SCLY 4: Crime and Deviance with Methods in Context Sociology Department Greenhead College SCLY 4: Crime and Deviance with Methods in Context Remember: You have to revise everything, because you have no choice on the exam paper. The specification 1 Different theories of crime, deviance, social order and social control * Different definitions of crime, deviance, social order and social control * The distinction between sociological theories of crime and other theories (eg biological, psychological); crime and deviance as socially constructed * Functionalist theories of crime: Durkheim, anomie, collective conscience; Merton’s strain theory; manifest and latent functions; functionalist subcultural theories * Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of crime: classical Marxism, laws reflecting class interests; Neo-Marxism, hegemony, the CCCS studies, critical and new criminology * Interactionist theories of crime: labelling theory, the self-fulfilling prophecy * Feminist theories of crime: patriarchy, male control of women’s lives * Control theory and other contemporary approaches to crime: social bonds, communitarianism, situational prevention; postmodern theories; Foucault on individualisation and surveillance * Realist theories: New Left Realism and Right Realism * The relevance of the various theories to understanding different types of crime, and their implications for social policy. 2 The social distribution...
Words: 25825 - Pages: 104
...Walk into any hospital in the country and there will more than likely be a nursing staff that consists almost entirely of female nurses. However, while waiting to see a physician, you more than likely expect a male doctor to walk into the room. Both health professions deal with nurturing and caring for patients, so why is it that male nurses get such a bad reputation? They make up for 6.6% of the nursing population, an increase from 5.7% from 2006. (Shah) The answer may be found by looking into gender roles, stereotyping, and the history of nursing as a profession. Nursing began with the care of infants and children. Hundreds of years ago, mothers would have been considered to be nurses. However, when diseases started to spread, people soon realized that love and nurturing were not enough to heal the sick. Early practices of nursing can be correlated with the age of Christianity, "modeling its practice after the teachings of Christ, caring for the sick, feeding the hungry and burying the dead. Therefore, during this period the history of nursing is intricately tied to the Church" ("Gonursingschools"). After the crusades, the world was ready for change. One of these changes that took place would have a major impact on the history of modern nursing. The Establishment of an institute in German: "Deaconess Institute at Kaiserswerth, Germany. A small hospital was opened which included a training school for deaconesses. Their training system was a close parallel to the educational...
Words: 1554 - Pages: 7
...|later studies (P. Willis = produced a no. of hypothesis about the | | |relationship between education & capitalist societies.) | | LIFE HISTORIES |Advantages |Disadvantages | |Allows the researcher to see the world from the social actor’s point of |Questions raised about the accuracy of recall of facts – hindsight might | |view, which may challenge assumptions and preconceptions of outsiders |generate re-interpretation of the past (validity in question). | |(Bogdan – Transexualism a rational, reasonable choice, not a sickness) | | |Can be used to falsify existing theories...
Words: 1209 - Pages: 5
...arrested for operating a call girl service. At the time, her pediatrician father had reacted flippantly, “I guess I didn’t do such a good job on Heidi after all.” Later, he would be convicted of conspiring to hide profits from his daughter’s call girl ring. Fleiss had dropped out of school when she was sixteen and established a liaison with a playboyfinancier who gave her a Rolls-Royce for her twenty-first birthday. In her early twenties, Fleiss interned in the world of prostitution by working for Madame Alex (Elizabeth Adams), Hollywood’s reigning call girl entrepreneur until her death in 1995. In 1990, backed by television director and pornography filmmaker Ivan Nagy, 24-year-old Fleiss opened her own business. She now refers to her call girl operation as nothing more than a sensible adjunct to many other Hollywood enterprises. One telling anecdote was how she was paid $40,000 a night by a customer to do little...
Words: 18652 - Pages: 75
