A Brief Note On The And Social Science - 1880 Words

Introduction Ethnographies are very important to social science. They help to dive into different groups and culture s day-to-day lives and learn and understand the way these groups and cultures live on a micro level. This helps those that are interested to better understand the reasons behind why these groups are the way they are and do the things they do. Ethnographies may take many different forms and take form on many different topics. These topics can range anywhere from sororities or fraternities to certain religions or cultures to cults or gangs and to many others. The type of ethnography that will be discussed is one on gangs. Dr. Jody Miller is a criminology professor at Rutgers University s School of Criminal Justice. She is†¦show more content†¦These patterns are explained by risk factors. Risk factors can be life events, living conditions, peer groups, or even the neighborhood a child grows up in. For example, a child that grows up in a house that is located in a rundown neig hborhood. He has no father figure and a mother that is never around. All of his friends have either joined a gang and become a member or hang around gang members. This child would be the most susceptible to end up joining a gang. As I mentioned earlier, this gang involvement leads to delinquency, violence, and/or victimization. Delinquency Delinquency is simply criminal behavior, whether it is shoplifting, doing drugs, fighting, or vandalizing property, delinquency is the act of committing minor crimes. This delinquent behavior is mainly committed by the younger population. All youths can be a delinquent, but that doesn t necessarily mean that they are in a gang. Gang membership is a major gateway for delinquent behavior. Dr. Jody Miller says that studies show that young gang members are responsible for a substantially large proportion of delinquent acts (Jody Miller, 2001). She uses the data from the Rochester Youth Development study, Thornberry and Burch report to back this up. T his study shows that youth gang members, boys and girls, accounted for 86 percent of all serious