Kody Scott's "Monster"

Book Review # 100419

Criminology
English > Analysis
Psychology > Theory

This paper uses various criminology theories to analyze Kody Scott's autobiography "Monster", which describes his life as a Los Angeles gang member.

1,085 words () | 7 sources | APA | 2006 India

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Kody Scott's autobiography "Monster" describes the his transformation into a ruthless killing machine and then back into a devout Muslim and a member of New Afrikan Independence Movement. The author points out that Kody's early childhood and teenage years conform well to various criminological theories, which are discussed in this paper.The paper relates that, as the social control theory describes, Scott developed an attachment to his family and became committed to make his family's life worth living. The author reports that Kody changed his name to Sanyika Shakur and dedicated his life to eradicating "gangsterism".

Table of Contents:
Criminological Theories
Introduction
The Arousal Theory
Differential Association Theory
The Social Learning Theory
Social Cognitive Theory
The Self-Control Theory
The Nature Assumption Theory
The Social-Control Theory
Change in Behavior over Time

From the Paper:

"Thomas Hobbes in his theory of social control suggests that people are naturally deviant, and that they want to satisfy their instinctive urges. However, they don't adopt the deviant nature due to four reasons described as attachment, commitment, involvement and beliefs. In Kody's case, he was more attached to his fellow gang members than he was to his own family. He didn't have much commitment to anything but his gang. He wasn't involved in any activities other than his gang. As for his beliefs he started out believing that he was wrong, but as time passed he began to rationalize what he was doing."

Sample of Sources Used:

Bohm, R. M. (2001), A Primer on Crime and Delinquency Theory. California: Wadsworth.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman & Co.
Calvert, S.L. (1999b). The form of thought In I. Sigel (Ed.), Theoretical perspectives in the concept of representation. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum. pp. 453-470.
Hirschi, Travis. (1969). Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Harris, J. R. (1998). The nurture assumption: Why children turn out the way they do. New York: Free Press