Crips and Bloods

The movie Crips and Bloods: Made in America is about a cluster of neighborhoods in the heart of Southern California. It highlights young African American men in two separate gangs called the Crips and the Bloods. The Crips are one of the oldest and largest gangs in the United States and the Bloods are a street gang originating from Los Angeles, California. They have been involved in murders, robberies, and drug dealing in the Los Angeles area. The film interviews former gang members Ron, Bird, and Kumasi, while recount their experiences growing up in the neighborhood in the 1950s and discussing the dangers of their previous decisions. Throughout this movie, the director accurately demonstrated many social theories however the labeling theory and the differential association theory stand out in the film. Labeling theory â€Å"examines the ascribing of a deviant behavior to another person by members of society† (OpenStax College, 2013, n.p.). This theory applies to deviance situations, which is a violation that is a rule made up by society. For example, â€Å"a teenager who lives in an urban area frequented by gangs might be labeled as a gang member. Accordingly, the teenager might begin to behave like a gang member or become one† (Chegg, 2018). This labeling theory perhaps explains better why young black Americans fall into crime and criminal gangs and this theory is exemplified a number of different times during the movie. In the movie, young men were stopped by the police for no apparent reason. Black people were not even supposed to enter a white neighborhood. And if they saw a young white twelve-year-old boy they were expected to say â€Å"yes or no sir.† The black men did not feel as wanted or respected and caused them to do more criminal acts. ). Individuals that are arrested, punished or prosecuted are labeled as criminals and others view and treat the labeled individuals as criminals. And also the labeled people find it difficult to obtain any form of formal employment. This situation led them into drug abuse and trafficking for the sake of raising money for their daily needs. Differential association theory is â€Å"a theory that states individuals learn deviant behavior from those close to them who provide models of and opportunities for deviance† (OpenStax College, 2013, n.p.). Simply Edwin Sutherland's this theory proposes that people learn attitudes, techniques, morals, and motives for criminal behavior through their interactions with others. For example, â€Å"a child who grows up among professional thieves is more likely to learn to steal; such a person might learn not only to regard stealing as acceptable but also specific techniques for stealing. In this view, younger people are more likely to learn deviance than older people† (Chegg, 2018). Throughout this whole movie, most of the former gang members are describing their reasons for joining a gang. For example, any of the African American children were not allowed to be admitted to any type of youth organizations. Even though a mother of a former gang member tried to sign her son up for Boy scouts, he was also rejected. If they had let that boy sign up for the youth program that would have taken him out of gang-related activities and lives would have turned upside down.