Criminal Justice watch movie and write - Term Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages... For this purpose, the work at hand presents one of the most important theories of crime, and directly relates it to the legendary White Family based on the information from the documentary film. Social Disorganization Theory One popular and influential theory of crime is the Social disorganization theory, as embraced by Shaw and McKay (1969). This theory rejects the notion of individualism, and instead explores the possibility that the social environment, or context external to the environment, must be the other cause – beyond the soul, mind and biological make up of a person – to take part in the crime. This theory, therefore, assumes that a person’s physical and social environment influences the choices of behavior that a person manifests (Lilly, Cullen, & Ball, 2011). This extends the thought that the emanation of crime or manifestation of a criminal behavior must be outside the context of individual factors. Shaw and McKay found that the following conditions led to susceptibility to generate social disorganization. ...
ains open to various relevant research studies, and in need of even more profound observations of cases to substantially support the theory in general. To support this theory further in line with its stated limitation, one can take the special case of the White family. The White family might be considered a perfect breed of outlaw that preserves something that is trying to preserve its genetics from generation to generation. However, another interesting aspect about this family is that they have also retained ability to tap dance that was remarkably passed on from their forefather. This relates to defending the theory of social disorganization assuming that the environment has influential force on the individual’s behavior. Though this might not be directly related to the theory of social disorganization, but in this case, parents have substantial influence on molding their children’s cultural background and showing them great things of interest to learn in the future. As a result, the Whites retain their remarkable talent in every generation to tap dance as depicted in the documentary film. While this might sound like a good side of the Whites, the dark side substantially prevails and it cannot be eliminated from the minds of the people in West Virginia that this family are outlaws. If this is based on the point of view of the social disorganization theory, it must consider the issues of corruption, poverty and eventually the prevailing cultural background as potential explanations (Corbin, 1981). Somehow, the film showcased this point, and it was made evident by a White who happened to find his fortune in California and built a family there. He became free from the actual exposure to the prevailing reputation of the Whites in West Virginia. As observed, this ...Download file to see next pagesRead More