JUSTICE FOR ALL.

                                         COURT TRIAL : 

1) “No gift to your mother can ever equal her gift to you - life”- Unknown. I can't imagine what kind of a person would take their own mother's life. This week we went to watch the trial of , Gary Shuning who is accused of  dual homicide. Gary allegedly murdered his mother, Doris, and his escort Kristi. "It's alleged in these charges that following a night of partying, the defendant returned to his house where he had an argument with his mother, Doris. During the course of the argument, the defendant pulled a knife on his mother, stabbed her, causing her death," said Joe Birkett, DuPage County state's attorney. It's also alleged that Gary stabbed Kristi after she found knifes covered with blood. Kristi got scared, then later called her Pimp who contacted the authorities. What is even more mind blowing is that Gary allegedly stole his mothers credit cards to order the escort's services.The price of the "service" was $1,220. We saw the third day of the trial; the first person called up to testify was the sergeant involved in the case. The sergeant was an evidence technician, and he saw all the evidence. The lawyer asked him a lot of repetitive questions. The sergeant explained all he saw that day he, said that one of the victim's throat was sliced. Bothe victims lacked clothing. Kristi was naked from the waist down, her shirt and jacket were rolled up to expose her breast. We saw a slide show with all the photographic evidence of the crime scene. There was no proof of any kind of forced entry.There was a huge dent of the wall, where Gary allegedly dragged his mother.There were blood splatters on several walls. Doris' face as bruised and her body covered. There were towels with blood, Gary allegedly used these to soak up the blood. The pictures on the slide show were very vivid and graphic. When the case first came out it was said that there were three victims Gary being the third. Gary was actually sent to the hospital after the police arrived to his house because he tried to kill himself. The case was very dramatic and I wish we could have seen it all. I think that on the justice system this case is as presenting the evidence because we saw the slide show with all the EVIDENCE. 

2) This was criminal case because it involved murder. 

3) The case was a felony, because it's a dual homicide. 

4) The race of the accused was Caucasian - white.

5) Theories that can explain this : Control theory and Phenomenological theory : 

Control theory explanation: 

The control theory talks about social institutes controlling behavior & contributing to social order. Our criminal justice system found Gary and he's trial is going on now. His trial is providing social control because if Gary did commit the crime he MUST pay for his deviant acts. Gary is already in jail and although jail is a total institution, him being in jail is already contributing to social control. 

Phenomenological: 

 The Phen. theory explains that deviants see their deviant ways as a positive thing. Gary remains "innocent" he doesn't think he did anything wrong as he says that a pimp mom entered his house, and that he killed in self defense. Gary does't think his deviance is bad so he acted accordingly....by killing his mother and Kristi. 

...... maybe Power theory too because Gary was obviously stronger than his mother and the escort he was able to kill them easier/faster  than they were able to hurt him.

Ironic story: As I was researching more on Gary his MySpace page came up and I clicked on it. I was morbidly surprised as this guy wrote " I love my family exspeically my mom ya im a momma boy." and on his hero section he wrote"my mom i love her to death she is the greatest she has always been there and ill always be there for her all my friends think she is the coolest i love you mommy." 

             If he really killed his mother this is some serious B.S.

                   JAIL:

1) Jail's subculture is very sad, lonely, and depressing. Their human rights are taken away, and are in a dark dirty room for a big part of their day. 

2) There were a lot of African American prisoners as well as Latinos. I didn't see many Asian inmates.

3) Retribution- They are there paying for something wrong they did.

Incapacitation- the inmates were in the jail all day, they can't see sunlight or anything and their rights are gone.

Deterrence- that place smelled and was awful I would hope that it stopped them from committing more crimes.

4) Control theory explain the inmates situation, because they are locked up for social order. Labeling theory works too, because many people label people in jail as the worst of the worst when they could be just awaiting a trail of which they are innocent for, or a misdemeanor. 

5) No, it has proven not to work because people that commit one crime will most likely go back to jail again. 

6) I hate jail. It was an awful place and it deprives people from their freedom and rights. I think that people should all obey the law :) 

DAVID AND ANDY.

          All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was babysitting. I was babysitting two little boys ( David and Andy). They were really bored and wanted to go play outside;since the weather had been so nice we went out. The boys were both seven, they were twins, and I thought they were a little mature. I was very wrong when we were outside the boys thought it was funny to take their PANTSSSSS OFFFF! They started running around the front yard like crazy.They were really fast and it took me a while to catch both of them. They thought it was okay to take their pants off in public. When we went inside the house they started getting brattier. Andy began  blowing up  water balloons and throwing  them to the neighbor's dog. Shortly after, David joined him I did my best to stop them.... but little kids are hard to handle. Eventually, I was able to calm the boys down by making them some Hamburger Helper cheeseburgers. The twins were really hard to handle this week. 
       This week deviant behavior has been the key discussion topic.The twins were deviant from my point of view by taking their pants off,and throwing water balloons to the neighbor's dog. Deviance is in the eye of the beholder, so with that said the twins didn't think they were doing anything bad. When the boys took their pants off it made me think of the Amish rumspringa. This was because just like little kids get away with being pantless,the Amish teens get away with their deviant acts ex: underage drinking.The fact that the boys took their clothes off for fun made me think of the way they had been socialized by their parents. Babysitting the boys made me think of the functionalism theory, simply because it's older teens job to babysit younger children; it's our "function". The Feminist theory came to mind as well: Women are expected to wear more clothing than men. David and Andy are both young and their clothes being off didn't cause chaos, although it was a little too much( or should I say to little LOL). If little girls were to be pantless I think the response would be the same ; however when boys and girls grow older this changes. 
Boys can wear less clothing than girls, by this I mean that women are expected to wear more covering clothing. If women wear more reveling clothes they often get insulted or unwanted "compliments" unlike men that can wear whatever.


TO FINSIH WITH: David and Andy were good the rest of the day and remained with their clothes on ! (: 

Gender

  All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was at Target. This week for homework we had to visit a department store,and look at the gender socialization involved in the store products.I chose Target and there I was definitely surprised. I went to the toys section of the store and looked around. The " girl" toys were much different, than the "boy" toys. The girl toys were pink and  fuzzy, while the boy toys were green, blue , and violent.The girl toys were soft and with flowers, hearts etc. I noticed one thing about the dolls for girls, for the most part they all had long hair and dresses. The boy action figures were all dresses as if they were going to beat someone up. I was trying really hard to look for gender neutral toys, but that was hard; I did however, find games like, Monopoly and Memory etc. that are pretty neutral. Ever since I was little I learned that girls wear pink, and boys wear blue, no one actually taught this to me.Gender is what society expects and prescribes of you based on your biological sex. This is hard for me to accept, because  I think that society  constricts peoples wishes , and almost makes people feel ashamed for not fitting in this cookie cutter shape. From such a young age children are given a mold and rules to follow without them even knowing so. The toys, clothes,sports, and even hobbies that boys and girls are allowed to play, by society's rules leave very little room for individuality. Socialization is great when used properly.It gives a great structure to society,but it also can bend us by our fictitious desires to draw such a thick line of division between boys and girls. 
 




Socialization "is a continuing process where by an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior,and social skills appropriate to his or her social  position." From birth children learn what society expects of them just by the sex they were born with. They acquire their gender this way. There is a well defined line for boys and girl toys. The similarity in clothing for each sex leaves very little room for individuality. We have come far as a society, but have even more left to go. 

OH BOY

  All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was babysitting over the weekend. I was babysitting a little boy named Arnold. He is seven years old and  is a very tough little boy. I asked him a  couple question, like what his favorite color was etc.  He answered all my questions as expected. His favorite color is blue and he loves to play sports. This all made me think about nature vs. nurture, and the gender role topics we've been covering in the classroom. Arnold wants to be a policman and told me he thinks that boys shouldn't cry. He was molded as the sterotypical boy.

   We learned the difference between gender and sexuality this week. Arnold's gender and sexuality are both the same, he is a boy and acts as a boy. However,I was thinking of what really influences his choices. People are born a blank slate, so our behaviors are all learned; were his parents  the ones that influenced him into liking sports and the color blue?All the things that we've been talking about in class really have made me think. Was Arnold at the young age of seven already a victim of the meadia's sterotypes? The first thing one sees when entering Arnold's room is the football wall paper. All the men stereotypes really take a toll on younger generations as well. When Arnold said that boys aren't supposed to cry, that really worried me. I believe that is healthy to show emotions. That qoute is greatly overused and shouldn't even excist, it gives men a bad outline of attitude. I was really thinking sociologically all weekend and seeing how society molds each gender to be, is actually impressing. If only these unspoken rules applied to other things for example: being polite. Society has done a great job at molding each gender to it's given behavior. It's done such a great job that acting other wise not specified by these "rules" creates conflict. The conflcit theory can be seen with all the men and women that behave in opposite characteristics. We should all just be accepting of each other because at the end of the day no one is alike. We all have different characteristics and seeing the things that we have in common will generate less stress.

Chinese Mothers

  The article about Chinese mothers was really interesting, and it made me think a lot! I think that Ms. Chua is doing the right thing as a Chinese mother; although it seemed harsh. Every culture has it's own ways of functioning and parenting skills are just one of the many differences within each culture. Ms. Chua's parenting style proved to be effective when  Lulu was able to play " The Little White Donkey" .  I think that the article was very bias it seemed to be dissing Western's style of parenting. The article  made it seem like Westerns are okay with the failure of their children. I don't think I can be as Harsh as  a Chinese mother when I have kids, but I will attempt to find a happy medium. Ms. Chau's parenting style was okay by me only because it seemed like she truly did want her kids to succeed . To each is own ,and tough love is indeed a way of showing " love" ( hence the name : tough love). I believe Ms. Chua's children will thank her later on in life when they are successful. The way Ms. Chua showed to care for her Lulu actually says a lot about her as a parent; she never gave up on Lulu, she believed her daughter was capable of doing anything. 

Analyzes: 

COOLEY : From Cooley's looking glass self which is : "the self image we develop from the way others treat us" ( classroom notes) 

Lulu's looking glass self would be  low when she is not able to do something right and he mom insults her by calling her  names like "garbage" etc. However when her mom does praise her for excelling at something her looking glass self goes up. When others give her compliments for her good work it goes up as well for ex. her piano recital parents were impressed with her wonderful job and she was given praise. 

MEAD: Lulu would have a very small "I" since Ms.Chua is not letting her be spontaneous for the most part. 

Her significant other ( Ms.Chua) and  her would probably not have a close bond because Ms.Chua is very strict. 

Generalized : Lulu probably has a lot of outside people influence her in her drive to succeed 

Freud : Lulu's interaction with her mom ( Ms. Chua ) influences her personality most likely in a negative way because she will feel that she always has to be perfect in life. As we know no one is perfect. 

Her ID: WILL BE VERY CONTROLLED BY HER MOTHERE

       EGO: WILL HAVE AN EASY TIME RATIONALIZING

       SUPERGO: VERY INFLUENCED BY HER MOTHER'S MORALS

***NOTE: As far as socialization goes Lulu and Sophia are very oddly socialized compared with the average American kids.  It is save to say they will be successful in life, but at what price. They can only be "perfect" for so long. They will not have too many friends because they are not engaged in extra curriculum activities of any kind. They are made to succeed and nothing else.

Culture!

 All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was in my American History class; we currently are doing an immigration unit. To think how much many cultures have to assimilate to America's society is incredible. To leave your native country, where you can find yourself at home with all your believes and traditions ( for the most part) and come here and incorporate those into your new life is a lot of change. Although the assimilation process doesn't occur with every immigrant population in American like we saw in the move My Big Fat Greek Wedding; it surely is seen more often. This all got me thinking and I asked my grandparents what it was like to come to America and their reactions were culture shock and culture clash. They described to me that they felt very odd eating some of the food like peanut butter and jelly, and Fluff ( which is a marshmallow like paste). My grandparents were farmers in Cuba and they were not used to seeing so much technology and when they came to America they were in awe. They also didn't speak the language which was a huge barrier for the obvious reasons. For the most part they assimilated well, however they do miss their original home land;but don't which to go back because of the type of government found in Cuba. 


 My grandparents had culture shock when they ate fluff and peanut butter and jelly. Specially fluff because they just thought it was a gross thing and that it tasted bad. They also thought it was wrong that in the American culture most of the families don't live as close to each other as they do in Cuba. Culture clash was when they came to America and were not able to speak the language and didn't know how to use all the technology . My grandparents didn't come here with much ethnocentrism, because they were accepting of the new culture. They were more of a subculture, because although they keep their Cuban roots very strong they still are able to assimilate to America's culture very well. Culture is a barrier itself , because since we don't understand all the cultures in the world we are quick to judge with our culture shock and create misunderstandings.

GRAPEWAY.

  All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I broke a folkway of my own. I probably have broken a couple of folkways without noticing or thinking anything of it at the time. When I broke the folkway for the project I totally was thinking sociologically since I was doing homework lol. The idea of dressing up as a grape came to me when I was watching Let's Make a Deal; which is a game show where participants dress up in costumes. There was a girl dressed as a grape and that was my inspiration. I dressed up as a grape by having a lot of balloons taped to me. I went to many public places and walked around. I went to Hobby Lobby where the manager came out a bit mad. He asked me why I was dressed up as a grape etc. I felt really awkward breaking that folkway because people were starring and asking me questions. However at the end of the day I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the whole process.COSTUME  LIKE THAT
This experiment besides having to do with a folkway also can have to do with functionalism theory and group terms. As a culture we all work together and do our job to fit in society; by dressing as a grape I think that I wasn't "functioning" in society because I wasn't filling any particular role. By me going to all the different store the people there were social aggregates (including myself)  we shared the same space, but lacked interaction. This of course wasn't always true, because as people approached me we did have interaction. I think I saw the Contagion theory in my experiment , because people laughter spread as a whole at the grocery store. A lot of the people approached me together and took pictures ( talk about awkward). Last but not least going back to the group term I would consider myself part of the out-group ( even if I was alone) because people were a bit hostile at first . This experiment taught me a lot , it taught me that I was more comfortable than I thought with the braking of folkways, that there are some RUDEEE!! people out there, and that society as a whole has way to manny norms etc.