The Saints And The Roughnecks By William Chambliss

In “The Saints and the Roughnecks” by William J. Chambliss, he examines two groups of delinquents from the same high school. He analyzed the behavior and activities of both parties. He analyzed them in several aspects, such as from a Monday to Friday, weekends, in school, and the encounters or interactions with the police. He concluded that the activities of both groups involved continuous and delinquent acts, however one group was looked as roughnecks, and gang members, while the other were distinguished as saints. He realizes the probable causes in each group’s way of performing their criminal acts, and depicts why they are viewed in such far extremes before society. Then he places two

One of the biggest reasons has to do with the visibility. Since the Saints had their own cars, they could commit their delinquent acts out of site of the community. This results in the positive image that the community has on the group. The Roughnecks were seen as the worst group because most of their actions were committed in the community in which they lived. The roughnecks were also more visible because they often tried to get into more fights which resulted in the police and community seeing what they were doing. Demeanor also played a huge part in the different treatment received. As stated before, the Roughnecks did not take confrontation so kindly regardless of who it was confronting them. The Saints would always be polite which would result in them not being as noticed for doing certain behaviors. Given all of these different reasons, the biggest still has to do with bias toward the social class. No matter what the situation was, the Saints acts were always seen as less serious when compared to the Roughnecks. This is just how our society is set up. We often favor and give the benefit of the doubt to the higher class as opposed to the lower class. All of these reasons are the ways in which the Saints received the better treatment then the

In this essay, I will argue how labelling theory, developed by Howard Becker, can affect someone’s probability to acting deviant because of the labelling group they conform to. I will

Bernburg et al. (2006) implement how labeling theory not only applies to an individual youth; but also to the youth's social network. Again, this can be visualized by the scenario of government intervention. Essentially, when government intervention of a juvenile individual creates a negative label, the youth's social network is effected and can result in a collective-realization of being a deviant. Ultimately, this has a strong impact on how youth see themselves which triggers the self-fulfilling prophecy (aLilly et al. 2011). This means that the label, regardless of its validity, is internalized and acted upon. Thus in this context, the youth and the members of their

Los Angeles and Chicago are two American cities that have a long history with gang violence. In the 1940’s the city of Los Angeles was experiencing a significant boom in the African American and Latino populations. During this time, there was also a massive influx of Caucasians into the Los Angeles area. The Caucasians wanted to keep African Americans and Latinos who they called ‘Zoot Suiters’ out of their neighborhoods, so they formed a white gang called the ‘Spook Hunters’. The formation of the ‘Spook Hunters’ increased racial tensions in Los Angeles exponentially and caused a surge in violence between the white gang members and ethnic minorities. During this time period the Ku Klux Klan had an active presence in the white neighborhoods of Los Angeles which significantly increased racial tensions. In the 1950’s and 1960’s African American and Latino gangs expanded and became more territorial and violent. To this date gang related violence remains a constant in the day to day lives of Los Angeles residents. Chicago history of gangs begins in 1860’s with Caucasians of different ethnic backgrounds. A pivotal moment in race relations in Chicago occurred when Regan Colts, a white gang, drowned an African American boy in Lake Michigan on July 27th, 1919 (White 25). This incident led to the first racial riots in Chicago where gang members openly attacked each other. Since that incident Chicago has experienced ongoing gang violence. In fact in Chicago gang related violence appears

The basis of Labeling Theory as a whole is practically exactly as it sounds, the labeling, or stigmatizing, of a person or group of people throughout their life. This labeling is the result of how that person, or group of people, identifies and behaves throughout their life. This idea of the Labeling Theory comes from Becker, who claims that individuals will conform with what is said and assumed about them. Becker’s theory states the idea that those who are labeled throughout life as deviant will become deviant and take on a known selfhood as deviant. This idea also claims that those labeled as deviant will act more deviant than if they had not been labeled this way. The Labeling Theory uses social characteristics such as class and race to

Since the Saints were always seen as boys who had a chance to go far in life despite their gang style activities, almost all of them finished highschool and got a college degree as well. On the other side the Roughnecks who were seen as kids who would not go far in their life, if they even made it out of highschool, those who believed those ideas were reinforced to not finish school and many of those boys ended up facing jail time for criminal charges. According to Chambliss (1973), “The community responded to the Roughnecks as boys in and the boys agreed with that perception. Their pattern of deviancy was reinforced, and breaking away from it became increasingly unlikely.” The differences in the reinforcement of the boys’ futures either helped or defeated their own perceptions of their futures depending on which type of reinforcement they received from the community they live in.

As I read On Being Sane in Insane Places and Mike’s musings I found both readings interesting. It really surprised me that Rosenhan called up eight friends and said “Are you busy next month? Would you have time to fake your way into a mental hospital and see what happens, see if they can tell you’re really sane?” (Slater, 2004) to know that those eight people were willing to pretend to be insane for an experiment; to give up their life, family and friends for a month to go live in a hospital with others in hopes to gain some knowledge from it all. If it was me, I would have been worried of what might have happened if the experiment went wrong or if the doctors would have figured out I was lying.

The sociological analysis of gang membership explores the different types of effects that arise due to criminal involvement. Because of the social conflicts that are associated with gang membership, this paper will explore the different theories of social learning and both personal and control issues that relate to the recent surge in crime across Chicago. As we open the doors of a crime ridden society, the truth begins to unfold. It isn’t just the thought of helping, it is the action that remains the barrier between living a life of crime or a life that carries hope.

“The labeling theory of social deviance offers insight into how people become deviants. According to this theory, individuals subconsciously notice how others see or label them, and their reactions to those labels over time form the the basis of their self-identity.” (Conley, 203) Drug abuse for instance has largely been seen as a moral failing, but its highly being seen as an illness. And as that perception has changed, so have the people who respond to drug abuse. Instead of just law enforcement taking control on drugs it now involves both law enforcement and doctors.

The most important part of Labeling Theory is the secondary deviance and the individual’s “acceptance” of the label.

This article provides literature to explain why certain boys join gangs using the Erikson life phases: industry versus inferiority stage and earlier. For this study, the researcher interviewed people who were associated with gang member or who was an actual gang member. The respondent are five experienced gang members in Los Angeles, an ex-gang member who is the intervention worker for the program, two Black high school teachers whom are natives in Los Angeles. One of the teacher stayed away from the gang, while the other teacher during his youth. The research program chose the teachers because of their status in the community now, and an active gang member who use an under covered name. From the study, researchers have enough information collected

Once a person is labeled deviant, opportunities for conforming behavior are seriously reduced and behavioral opportunities that remain open are primarily deviant ones; budding deviant increasingly exhibits deviant behavior because his or her choices are restricted by society. Successful deviants acquire techniques and resources necessary to undertake the deviant act and develop mind-set characteristic of others like them. Labeling process can cause harm than good. In many cases the venture of labeling a young person in the plight of a mistake does take a strive on the young person, which forms that point in their life drives that person to continue to view themselves in the wrong manner. Negative labeling can have a positive twist upon the

The crimes the Saints and the Roughnecks committed stood on different grounds, but they both are on equal ground. In the article of The Saints and the Roughnecks, Chambliss states that, “The Roughnecks, then, engaged mainly in three types of delinquency: theft, drinking, and fighting.” He also spoke of the weekend affairs of the Saints which “include drinking heavily in taverns, or nightclubs, driving drunkenly through the streets, and committing acts of vandalism and playing pranks”. Both groups participate in the same activities on a similar level. They both are into drinking and perform crimes. Although these groups are similar, they are

According to Howard Becker’s labeling theory, ‘deviance is not a quality of the act person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an “offender”.’ (Becker