Sociology Lens

Crime films are arguably the most complex classification of movies that reflect our ideology of moral order and justice, lawful and illicit, desirable and unworthy. Crime films mirror society due to its interplay with the complexity of real live events that satisfy the audience’s desire for mayhem, underdog characters, and a fallible justice system. The critical alternative tradition, for the most part, focuses on this aspect of the film; while traditional movies tend to emphasize heroism and the restoration of moral order.

The earliest crime film may be traced to the silent epoch of 1897-1927, during the Progressive era in the United States. Social conditions that existed during this time, such as immigration and urbanization led to a proliferation of organized crimes, social anarchy, and distrust of the government. The alarming rate of crime and social disorder created a leeway for the emergence of crime movies, such as the Great Train Robbery, which Rafter (2006) believed may have been the first crime film. The prohibition code that was expected to restrict alcohol and other illicit acts had the reverse effect on the public. It created further rebellion for the law and produced an increased fascination for gangster films, such as Scar Face and Little Caesar, which portrayed outlaws as heroic figures that sought to gain economic status through illegal means. The fact that gangster films portrayed urban neighborhoods and criminality in a realistic fashion allowed the audience to better identify with the motivation and criminal lifestyle of the gangster. This in itself contributed to the endurance of the gangster genre even into the 21^st century.

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As an avid user of the metropolitan bus system for the past five years, I have met a lot of interesting characters. These include folks of different background, age, size, and color. I have witnessed events on the bus that are either too crude to describe in detail or too ridiculous to seriously warrant my attention. Over the years, I can say that my experience in using public transit services has been two-fold. On one hand, public transits have been integral in transporting me to and from work. However, on the other hand, it has created a space where I am bombarded with nuisances (people talking to me when I am clearly not interested, or the unpleasant odor emanating from the seats) that make my journey an unpleasant experience. Other minor frustrations include the wait time and lack of adequate shelter in harsh weather conditions. I am sure that other users in my metropolitan area would provide the same outlook, and given the increase in users and the need for this service, I predict that these conditions will only be exacerbated.

Increased population growth in metropolitan cities necessitated the creation of transit stations where persons could transfer from one transportation to the next (Iseki & Taylor, 2010). During the early 19^th century, as cities expanded and horse-drawn transportation became accessible, the U.S. witnessed the exodus of the rich from areas close to the city to more suburban areas, leaving the poorer classes who were impotent to afford similar amenities— residing adjacent to the city (Glaser, Kahn, & Rappaport, 2008). According to Glaser, Kahn, and Rappaport (2008), slightly over 19% of the population of residents living in metropolitan areas are poor, in comparison to less than 8% of persons living in suburban areas.  Lower population density in the suburbs— and availability of finances to purchase cars— explains the lower levels of public transportation in those regions. While, on the contrary, high population density and financial mediocrity in metropolitan cities fostered the need for public transportation. Individual level characteristics, such as age, gender, and disability in combination with socio-economic characteristics, such as income and location determine travel preferences. For example, persons from lower-income households prefer to take the bus and are more concerned about cost than individuals from higher income brackets. Also, individuals with disability were more concerned about accessibility and comfort of the bus than younger able-bodied individuals (Stradling, Carreno, Rye,  & Noble, 2007).

It is crucial to note that transportation by bus is not a confined phenomenon to metropolitan areas in the United Sates. In fact, according to Stradling, Carreno, Rye, and Noble (2007), Britain alone experienced more than 4.1 billion bus passengers between 2005 to 2006, with Scotland showing a rapid increase in bus users over the past five years. However, given that cities are rapidly growing and the poverty gap has been exacerbated by unemployment and a constellation of social ills, bus services becomes a necessity for a large populous of residents in the city (Stradling, Carreno, Rye, & Noble, 2007). The advent of bus services comes with cost, wait time, transfer time, and other nuances that impact the quality of services passengers received. And, with more individuals using the bus in contemporary society compared to previous years, it will continue to be a common occurrence for transit users to spend considerable time outside of transit vehicles than inside the vehicles. In fact, much time is expended waiting, transferring, and walking to the bus stop than the amount of time spent during the actual ride to one’s destination. Therefore, the ease and accessibility in using transit services will be a crucial determinant of bus patronage (Iseki & Taylor, 2010). Despite the importance of reduced wait times for users, a more crucial concern of bus passengers pertains to the issue of safety while waiting on or riding the bus. According to Iseki and Taylor (2010) safety is a key concern of transit users, more so than transfer and reliability. The authors note that satisfaction with safety varies based on the time of day and gender of the user. For example, users are more likely to feel safer during the day than at nights, and issues concerning safety were primarily, but not exclusively, voiced by females (Stradling, Carreno, Rye, Noble, 2007).

The physical condition and amenities of the bus and bus station is a marginal concern of  users, while information about  bus schedules and routes and accessibility of the bus station (navigating to one’s stop) are key issues consistently related to users’ satisfaction ( Iseki & Taylor, 2010).  Despite that wait and transfer times are known to play a crucial role in the level of bus patronage, previous research has neglected to investigate the impact of wait, walk, and transfer time on people’s travel behavior, but have devoted much investigation to in-vehicle travel experiences and the physical conditions of transit stops and stations (Iseki & Taylor, 2010). While public transportation by bus provides passengers with an element of social interaction that cannot be replaced by cars— as well as reducing environmental pollutants, many individuals are still reluctant to reduce car travel and employ public mode of transportation, possibly because of the inconvenience it may have on travel patterns, or because individuals do not assess gas emissions as crucial environmental concerns to warrant radical change (Gatersleben & Uzzel, 2003).

Given the many concerns of public transportation, it is understandable that some users would not desire to employ public transits. Besides, the accessibility and privacy of one’s car create more comfort and eliminate a lot of frustrations that accompany the use of public transits. Nonetheless, as a society, we all have a role  to play in protecting our environment and reducing gas emissions, and if one mode of reducing environmental pollutants is by reducing car travel,  I advocate for a reduction (but not elimination) of private vehicles.  I believe that this would help to foster an equal balance between the use of private and public vehicles that would create a ‘greener’ environment.

During the periods of 1991 and 1998, obesity increased by 50 percent in the United States and at similar rates in other regions of the world. In 1993 alone, over 300,000 premature deaths were attributable to poor diet and inactivity. Obesity is a grander factor in chronic health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension among adults and children than smoking, poverty, or alcohol. The ramification of obesity directly affects one’s physical health and has profound implications for the social and emotional well-being of the overweight individual (Greenberg, Easting, Hofschire, Lachlan, & Brownell, 2003; Himes & Thompson, 2007; Whyte, 2010; Fouts & Burggraf, 2000).

Obese persons are more likely to be targets of negative stereotypes and treated with disrespect. Social bias and discrimination against these persons could culminate in poorer access to health care, education, and employment (Greenberg, Easting, Hofschire, Lachlan & Brownell, 2003). Targeted persons may feel reluctant to seek certain social and health services because they are sentient of their weight and may believe that they will be discriminated against by health officials (Greenberg, Easting, Hofschire, Lachlan, & Brownell, 2003; Whyte, 2010). This is not a preposterous supposition given that according to a national survey, some primary care physicians felt that overweight persons are lazy and non-compliant to treatment (Whyte, 2010)

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The shared hypothesis that delinquency—by far and wide— is a male phenomenon is an erroneous conception. Even though males have historically been recognized as violent perpetrators and females as passive and non-threatening victims, the increase in female violence and gang membership has become a cause for concern in several cities across the country. There has been marginal emphasis placed on females’ involvement in crime and delinquency due to entrenched stereotypical notions of females as “biologically incapable” of committing certain heinous acts; the lack of attention to female involvement in delinquency stems from the interpretation of their involvement as petty indignities or as a form of rebellion during the  adolescence stage. However, social scientists are cognizant, based on statistical evidence, that this is not the case. In fact, females’ involvement in delinquency and other forms of crime bespeaks a far greater problem than what has been purported. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, “Between 1985 and 2008, the number of delinquency cases involving females increased 102% (from 222,800 to 449,700 cases); for males, the increase was 29% (from 932,300 to 1,203,600 cases). The average annual growth in the female caseload outpaced that for males for all offense categories between 1985 and 2008. In 2008, more females were responsible for person and property offenses than males” (OJJDP, 2008, p.12-14).

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The issue of homelessness is a sociological inquiry that has been relatively understudied, albeit the phenomenon’s unremitting development. According to Meanwell (2012), in the United States homelessness has continued to grow since the early 1980s with a particular proliferation among vagrant women and families. In 1984, the cities of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles had the largest number of homeless persons per population, with New York witnessing the highest rates of homeless individuals (Wolch, Dear, & Akita, 1988).  The concept of homelessness is not an easily defined term. While the average person understands the basic concept of vagrancy, researchers in the sociological field have applied inconsistent definitions to the concept of homelessness, understandably so as the notion encompasses a dimension more exhaustive than a singular definition of “an individual without residence.” Homelessness comprises a continuum ranging from the absence of a permanent shelter to poor living arrangements and housing conditions. According to Wolch et al. (1988), homelessness is not an abrupt experience, rather it is “the culmination of a long process of economic hardship, isolation, and social dislocation” that has affected an individual or family ( p.443). Additionally, states of vagrancy may come in varying forms, such as street residence, temporary habitation in shelters, or assistance from service organizations, such as soup kitchens and the Salvation Army.

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