American Gangster Sociological Theory
The American Gangster Interpretation of the American Dream Ridley Scott’s film American Gangster tells the story of Harlem gangster Frank Lucas and his rise to power in the late 1960s. However, underneath the plot of the film, American Gangster is an excellent case for a striving sociologist to dive headfirst into as it can have several models in the academic field of sociology. The Structural Functional Theory, the Symbolic Interactionist Theory and Conflict Theory can be used to explain the rise of Frank Lucas, who became one of the most high-profile American gangsters of the 20th Century. Taking place in Harlem, the viewer meets Frank Lucas the driver for mobster Ellsworth Johnson. After Johnson suffers from a heart attack, Lucas becomes the head of the crime syndicate. He begins by going to Thailand to secure pure heroin from the local drug lord in the area, and once he
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Each of these theories has branches that further their explanation for the origin, nature, and extent of crime. Structural Functional Theory believes that values or beliefs are central and play a causal role in explaining crime and that crime can result from a breakdown or strain in social processes that produce conformity. The work in this theory focuses on institutions such as family, school, and the absence of law enforcement and how they socialize individuals to core values. The Symbolic Interactionist Theory, on the other hand, subtlety shifts the emphasis to values and the ways in which meaning and definitions are involved in explaining criminality. Interactionists believe that these meanings and definitions can shape deviant behavior and responses to it. Over time, this shifted the emphasis on meanings and definitions to a focus on the roles that official agencies of social control play in imposing these meanings and definitions on
Each of these theories has branches that further their explanation for the origin, nature, and extent of crime. Structural Functional Theory believes that values or beliefs are central and play a causal role in explaining crime and that crime can result from a breakdown or strain in social processes that produce conformity. The work in this theory focuses on institutions such as family, school, and the absence of law enforcement and how they socialize individuals to core values. The Symbolic Interactionist Theory, on the other hand, subtlety shifts the emphasis to values and the ways in which meaning and definitions are involved in explaining criminality. Interactionists believe that these meanings and definitions can shape deviant behavior and responses to it. Over time, this shifted the emphasis on meanings and definitions to a focus on the roles that official agencies of social control play in imposing these meanings and definitions on