One of
society's most historic and pervasive ills has been that of violence. It
seems as though no matter what society, empire, time, or place in history you
would like to examine, you will inevitably run into some instances and accounts
of violence therein. It is sad to say that in today’s day and age we see
instances and accounts of violence occurring at an exponential and alarming
rate all across the globe.
Sampson’s
argument about violence in “Great American City” is that though issues such as
violence and their relationship to our local neighborhoods are effected by
global realities in many ways, they are still ultimately local issues with
local causes and solutions. No matter how far and wide we look for causes of
violence at the local community level, we will find no better answer than
within the communities in and of themselves. Sampson himself examined possible other
larger context causes for violence at the local community level such as the dissipating
level of control and stewardship the Chicago Housing Authority had on its
housing projects, the effects of collective efficacy and perceived disorder,
and organized leadership in violence-stricken neighborhoods. The most common outcome
of Sampson’s many studies seemed to be that these larger contextual realities
had little to no effect on local communities and the rates of violence seen
therein; though it should be noted that Sampson did believe that many of these factors
were generally accurate predictors of future violence, in particular collective
efficacy. Overall, Sampson concludes “no matter how much our fate is determined
by global or “big” forces, it is experienced locally and shaped by contexts of
shared meanings, collective efficacy, and organizational responses.” Again we
see collective efficacy as the most reliable source for founding one’s
predictions about communal violence in Chicago and abroad.
My own
reaction to this is that this portion of the chapter was very enlightening. I can
agree with the conclusion that Sampson comes, in that local communities have
their own level of agency when it comes to the level of violence committed within.
I do, however, believe that some global realities and circumstances that transcend
any one local community will inevitable play a role in the social dynamics and
instances that are witnessed within a local community. For example, the prevalence
of violence in the media and the video games undoubtedly has an incredibly
strong effect on the minds of adolescents across the globe and within our own
local neighborhoods. Therefore, I believe this prevalence of easily accessible
and consumable violence will inevitably effect the actions of this adolescents
once they grow and become accountable adult members of society; we will see
increases in local violence due to this global reality.
http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/Pages/PDF/Guerra-DierkhisingANGxp1.pdf
http://www.ojjdp.gov/jjbulletin/9804/community.html
I really liked your blog and the articles that you found. The article on the violence in schools helped to really show how much violence was actually present in schools before programs were in place to reduce it. The other article is great in how it shows that behaviors are learned as an individual grows up. Children learn from their parents as well from the community that they live in. Even without a parents influence, a child will only then draw more heavily on the community they are in. In terms of what i thought was bad was that you didn't give the name of the study you mentioned that Sampson did. Of course it is likely that the name of the said wasn't said in the book but if it was it would have been a nice addition in case a reader wanted to view the entire study themselves. Overall the blog was really good minus that one thing.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, the violence in the community article was an interesting read. As I went to a school in Little Village which had students from other neighborhoods such as North Lawndale I was able to see some of these legislations in action such as the "safe corridors" though it helped as there were less fights after school it still had a couple of bad effects as while I was in school one of the volunteers for the safe passage was arrested after selling marijuana to a student after school while he was supposed to be out on the lookout for anything that might go wrong. This also reminded me of what occurred in Fenger High School when Derrion Albert was brutally killed after school by other classmates just cause they were from different neighborhoods which is occurring due to the school closings in Chicago. Therefore, I believe that these legislations have been able to work, but now we actually need to strictly enforce them in order for them to work at their full potential.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/derrion-albert-the-death-that-riled-the-nation/