The Vicious Circle Response

   As the article stated, most of the youth that are prisoners, are minorities. I find this fact completely believable. On the news, all you ever see are black or Hispanic people getting busted for selling narcotics, or committing some other crime. It kind of displays why many Americans fear the minorities. They believe that they cause most of the crime, and they should be locked up for doing so. However, the number of young (white) suburbanites is on the rise.    The primary deviants should be treated more harshly, so that they understand that if they commit the crime again, they will be punished even more severely. Letting the go with only a slap on the wrist just lets them believe that they will never actually be in serious trouble. Secondary deviance should be handled in the same way, only they should get some sort of rehabilitation so that they can get themselves on the right path. I don't think that taking away their driving privileges will really do much. If anything, they will just get a ride from someone and continue their illegal acts. They will not truly value what they have (comfort,space,technology) unless it is taken away from them. Everyone has a license, it's only a matter of finding out who will drive you.
   Prisoners are in jail because they did something that was illegal. Selling Narcotics is illegal, which is why young teens should be placed in a juvenile detention center like the rest of the young criminals. Prison is not a place anyone ever wants to end up in. Prisoners live in horrible conditions. Yet, I believe they deserve these conditions. If you want to go against the law you should be punished by going to jail. Although I strongly believe this, I also think that their should be some sort of rehabilitation for the prisoners so that when they get out they are socialized and can better adapt to society's rules.
  

Life, or Death?

   All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociology when I read Eating Your Friends Is the Hardest: The survivors of the F-227. I read about these people that got stranded on a mountain and their only choice of survival was to eat the dead people. I thought it was disgusting, but it the reasons for these people's actions related very much to Strain and Phenomenological Theory. First, it related to StrainTheory because since they were stranded on a mountain top, they basically developed their own rules. The norms of society didn't apply to them anymore.
   The Phenomenological Theory relates to these stranded people because of their situation. The only food that they had in the beginning was chocolate and wine, but that ran out very fast. After they heard that the rescue squad was no longer searching for them, they realized that they needed to find a way to survive. The only option that they had was to eat the dead bodies. They made their actions positive by telling themselves that this was their only way of survival. If they did not do this then they would eventually die.
   If Iwas put into this situation, I don't know how I would react. I think that I would reluctantly eat the people because I would know that would be my only way to survive. If put in that situation, everyone is forced to reconsider their morals. The deciding factor would be do you want to live, or die?