Correlates of Criminal Behaviour
According the our chapter 5 booklet we have, it says ‘crime can be said to be a young man’s game.’ When comparing it to The Interrupters movie we can tell this is true. It was common to see that people between the ages of 15-24 committed the most crime. The younger kids, 18 and under more or less seemed to be the most irrational ones; acting without thinking. In The Interrupters, another 2 other age groups came into play besides the ones that committed the crimes. Little kids were seen out and about in the streets watching all the violence and trouble go down. Children are very impressionable and will be influenced by what they see in the streets growing up. We can easily predict what will happen when they follow in their parents or older siblings steps. The other age group was the middle-aged people that made up the interrupters. Those people were the ex-gangbangers who have seen everything and have smartened up. They’re the ones who’ve had a reality check and now are trying to help young people not go down the same road.
Looking at the next point in our booklet it says “The crime rate for men greatly exceeds the rate for women” and again we could see that in The Interrupters. It was usually guys out in the streets, starting fights. causing trouble however, when it came down to protecting each other, the whole family would be ready to jump in especially they sisters who’d become over-protective of their brothers.
In the movie most people seemed to be African American or Hispanic. According to our booklet, race had been found to be a good predictor of criminality in the U.S however Canadian data is less clear due to the fact that race info is generally not collected by the criminal justice system. Collecting data on race creates racial profiling amongst authority.
It wasn't really said point blank in the movie but most guys were either using drugs or selling drugs. Drug use among criminals is widespread apparently.
In the movie unemployment was high. The people were poor, and uneducated; also a lot of the homes where that of single parent families. The research is far from conclusive though and it's very controversial. There is little Canadian research as well.
Region: The setting of the film was inner city in Chicago, a rough part of town. There is easy access to drugs/guns. There are many different theories as to how region plays a part. Some say it's because of unequal distribution of wealth, others say Urban life has more violence due to more density of people.
