The Cause and Effect Issue, Essay Example

The Cause and Effect issue in the article had to do with the first intervening subject, the ability of a community to supervise and control teenage peer groups, “Shaw and McKay’s research was that most gangs develop from unsupervised, spontaneous play groups.”(Thrasher 1963, pg 25).  They were stating that the cause of gangs involves play.  The issue with that statement is that there was nothing else backing that up.  Is the play group spontaneous with no structured play or is it a group that ends up playing basketball or a pick up football game when it starts out with two kids just playing catch.  The group itself may not be the cause of the gang issue unless it is known that all or most in the group are, “up to no good” (pg 778).  The cause of a gang cannot solely rely on a group of kids that get together.  Also the question of supervision comes into play, is it a coach supervising or an adult or an older brother or sister.  Some people may see supervision in different ways.  There is not enough information to back up what the researchers wanted to get across as being spontaneous or unsupervised.

The response of Kelly is rather insightful, but I believe that the author of this post has underestimated the breadth of the unstructured and unsupervised youth groupings in the rise of crime in the region. The cause and effect relationship is not understood correctly, since the unstructured and unsupervised youth gangs do not represent the cause of crime rise; they rather serve as the indicator of the social disorganization, which is also closely and directly related to crime rates. The youth coming out in the streets and not knowing what to do other than hanging out and spending their time in some empty, often deviant ways, is a sure path to crime, since disorganized groups without a clear leader, without distinct hobbies, sports interests, etc. often fall under the influence of deviant leaders who use them for their own benefit. There is very much coverage in the mass media sources about the ways in which youth crime is overwhelming the streets of cities nowadays; it is not a myth, since organized, serious criminal groupings are in the shadows, while dirty jobs with selling drugs, robbing, or intimidating somebody can be given to youths attracted by appealing images of mafia and criminal bosses popular in the Hollywood films. Hence, youth can remain law-obedient and disciplined in case they have some common goal such as sports or play, so I tend to agree with the definition of Sampson and Groves (1989) here. Youth should be controlled and given some task, some ambitious objective; moreover, youth should be supervised, even if not directly, in the course of achieving that goal. This way, the community can control the entry of deviant individuals and deter crime in the neighborhood.