SOC SCI 164D Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Zoot Suit, Arson, Random Encounter
Document Summary
Three major causes as to why we have street gangs and gangs in general: Zoot suits became an informal symbol of contraband. If you"re wearing a zoot suit, you were supposedly anti-american and the media helped perpetrate this. When people are marginalized, you don"t get an equal shot as the rest of the community does. People use violence in this country as a tool/solution. Americans are addicted as violence and use it as a form of entertainment. We have over 2. 3 million people in custody. America spends over 60 billion dollars a year to incarcerate. Per capita america puts more people in prison than any other country in the world. The cycle of violence seen in colonial america is used in street gangs today; they call it the payback. No insult ever goes unanswered no matter how small. Gangs are a function of demographics and geography. Migration is more profound now than 25 years ago.