Dupage County Court/Jail Complex

Going into the courtroom, I had no idea what to expect. Sitting in on a double murder trial isn't an everyday thing. When the police man was called to the stand is when it really struck me that this was real. He raised his right hand and then sat down. Many of the questions asked were repetitive, just wanting to get the whole story with ALL of the details. The man up for trial allegedly murdered his mother and then, allegedly, proceeded to murder a prostitute he called to his house. Double murder. The whole time the class was in there, the police man was on the stand and another man was asking him all sorts of questions. They gave a mental picture of the house, told what it was like once arriving on the scene, and then they started to show pictures. They started with exterior. "Was there any forced entry here?", "Was there any forced entry here?" I was sure that I heard that question over a hundred times. After that was finished, they moved to interior. Dents in the drywall, blood splattered everywhere, sheets trying to cover things, and two stabbed bodies laying in the middle of the house.

This case would definitely be counted as a criminal case, cateorigized under felony. This is a way more serious case than traffic tickets, or drug abuse. The accused was of a white race. When asked what theory would apply to this case the first one that comes to mind is the labeling theory. I think of this one because he has now been labeled and talked about and put on trial for being a murderer. That name NEVER goes away. It doesn't matter if he doesn't have to do jail time, if he gets out of jail, or if he wasn't in a good mental state; he will still be associated with murder. His record will have it on there, the media has caught glimpses of it, etc. He set himself up for a very unappealing reputation.

After sitting in on the trial for a couple hours, we went over to the jail. The subculture of the jail was very intense. They are people; real, living, breathing people. And when you're in a place like jail, it's very hard to remember that. They hit the walls, and yell inappropriate things. They are individualized, wearing the same outfits as everyone else there. They are locked up for the majority of their day, depending on their situation. There are murderers, rapists, drug abusers, child abusers; and it is absolutely unreal. They are apart of society but they aren't. It's a really weird feeling. From what I could see the majority of the men I saw at the jail were of white or african american race. Rehabilitation was happening right in front of our faces. They were locked up, not able to do what they want, see what they want. They are being taught how to be better in society.  I think there are two main theories of deviance that go along with the jail. The first one being, strain theory because the sheriff told us that there has been more fighting in the past few years than ever before. And I believe that this is happening because they all feel like they are less fortunate than each other and so they need to up their social status to gain people's respect in the jail. In my opinion, why would you want to impress anyone who has done something so wrong they are locked up for it..? The second theory I would choose is shaming theory because they get locked up, given a specific outfit to wear, given only the food the jail provides, given no privacy at all, and are always being watched. I think that is enough to make the deviant (or prisoners) feel bad and uncomfortable there. I think that jail is one of the only ways to really maintain society at a tolerable level. Prevention of deviance is never really going to happen. There is always someone who doesn't care about the rules and is, therefore, willing to break them. I thought that walking around in the jail that I was always being watched. Not just by the cameras, but by the prisoners. And it was awkward. It was a very intense atmosphere and being in there for only a tour made me never want to go back there.

I saw Sociology..

This week I saw sociology when I played football with some friends. We went to the park and chose teams and then played! It was so much fun until some people started getting really annoyed with one another. When we first started we decided the goal lines and out of bounds but when we began to play, some didn't follow all of the rules. One girl on the opposite team ran out of bounds and then into the goal and started jumping up and down, very exccitedly. It didn't take long for someone from my team to get up and yell cause she went out of the bound line. They argued until we finally called a redo.

Things went back to normal and everyone was playing and getting along just fine. Then someone from the opposite team ran up and threw one of my teammates on the ground. And then ran off like nothing happened. Obviously, she was a little angered by this. So they began to argue and after awhile everyone started arguing and it became a huge mess.

Overall, I think this situation shows deviance in a way because some of the players weren't showing very much respect for others and they were just doing rude things. If that was an actual football game, they would have gotten called for a foul or something. But because there wasn't really any set rules, they got away with whatever they wanted to do and they knew that. I think it also shows conformity because after one person started fighting, everyone started fighting and it turned into a fiasco of yelling and calling people rude names. I learned that I'm never playing football again...

I saw Sociology at..

This week., the juniors have been testing in the field house. For two days we were all packed into the gym for five hours, taking tests that will help us decide our future. With hundreds of teenagers packed into one place, it can get pretty crazy. The first day, Dr. Cheng gave a speech to us about doing well on the test and at the end of his talk he had us all do the wave. I think that this kind of goes along with culture because everyone knew what the wave was and everyone knew how to do it. It's not neccesarily apart of our everyday lives but we are taught to do that and we know when it's appropriate.

Also, when we were given breaks in between tests everyone would seperate into different groups. It wasn't socially exceptable to step into another groups space or area until we were forced to go back to our assigned seats. Another example was when we had a break, someone hit the box off of the fire alarm and it started buzzing. Everyone got silent and stared over at the kid who did it. Then when it was fixed everyone clapped and yelled for the person. It's conformity to your peers when you do what they are doing.

It's our culture to test for college. Not everyone takes it as seriously as others but we all know how to act. This kind of testing is really specific on the directions which made all the stundents laugh because some things are obviously not okay. I think that it proved a lot of peoples maturity levels when taking these tests and getting through the long two days.

I saw Sociology when...

While learning about the gender roles, I remembered a time when I was at the store picking up outfits for my cousins. I walked through the boy clothes section and saw all the blue and darker, sports type clothing they had out for the boys. As I was going through I noticed a little boy and his mom a little ahead of me. The boy was crying because he didn't want any of the clothes his mom was picking out for him. I felt bad for him, thinking he should be able to choose his own clothing if he wants to. I really couldn't do anything about it so I walked away headed towards the girls section.

I walked through the racks of flowers and princess clothes that all the little girls couldn't wait to get their hands on. I realized that the boy and his mom started to walk away from the boys section towards the registers. This meant that they had to pass the girl clothes. And as they were passing the boy stopped to look at a pink girls shirt. His mom tugged his arm not wanting him to even look at the shirt. But when she did that he only started to cry more. She picked him up and put him in the shopping cart telling him that they weren't going to get any clothes at all.

I think that boys learn they need to wear one specific type of clothing and nothing else. And girls learn they need to wear the opposite type of clothing and nothing else. I don't think it was fair to pull the little boy away from the pink shirt. It's not like the shirt was going to give him a disease or make him gay, like I'm sure that mom was thinking. People, even little kids, have the right to wear whatever type of clothing they want. That mother took her sons right away when she wouldn't let him even look at the shirt.

Gender Roles

This week in class the focus has been on gender roles. What makes a person feminie and what makes a person masculine. It made me think how boys and girls could be either now-a-days. A girl doesn't nessecarily have to be feminine and a boy doesn't nessecarily have to be masculine. Sometimes this way of thinking poses a problem though. Some do not think it is okay for a male or female "act" like the other gender.

This makes me mad because I think that people should be able to be who they want and how they want without the unnessecary imput from others around them. We brought up in class that some think they are born that way, and it isn't their choice at all. In some cases, I think that could be very true. Just because a boy wants to play with a barbie doll or a girl wants to play with hot wheels, doesn't mean that they are going to be gay or lesbian. It doesn't mean that they are going to grow up more like a boy instead of a girl or vice versa.

In my opinion, I think that parents are paranoid. They don't want their child to be made fun of so they do everything in their power to keep them from switching the gender roles. Parents sometimes need to back off and let the kid be who they want to be. If they push away the type of person that child is supposed to be, they are pretty much pushing away the child itself.

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

After reading the article, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, I really thought a lot about what Amy's husband said. He explained that it isn't a child's job to spend their lives repaying their parents. I love my parents and I help them out as much as I can so I can't fully agree with what this man said. We (children) didn't choose to be born and we didn't get to choose our parents or family but neither did our parents. Of course they chose to become pregnant and start a family but they didn't get to say, "I want my kid to be this, this, and this." I think as children it is one of our responsibilities to help out and listen to our parents. On the other hand, our parents shouldn't be making every single choice for us. Mothers and fathers need to give us freedoms, that's how we as kids learn to grow up.

Honestly, I believe that the way Chinese mothers raise their children is somewhat wrong. It could be that I'm not used to that and I've never been around that type of parenting, but it's a little different. Pushing children to the very extreme, like she did while helping her daughter with piano, seems unethical. Children need breaks and to walk away from something for awhile. All humans need that, not just children. I think these mothers are building a strong person and an involved person, I also think though that the Chinese mothers could do this in a less intense way.

In my opinion, if I was called garbage by my mother or father I would be so upset. I don't believe it would help raise my self-esteem. As kids grow up, there are a lot of things in the world that can make a child feel vulnerable or drop their self-esteem. Hearing something that, plain and simple, would not make someone feel good. I think that with all of the different theories of Mead, Cooley, Piaget, and Freud they explain why the Chinese mothers act this way, or how this style of parenting helps.

Culture!

The past few weeks, we've been talking about culture and how all of the different types of cultures interact. Culture universal shows us how many cultures have the same idea (weddings, funerals, etc.) but each culture has different "rituals" that go with it. After watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I realized how different my culture is from their Greek culture in the movie. Their family parties consisted of yelling, talking over each other, eating, eating, and more eating. My family parties consist of sitting in the backyard for a barbeque, telling stories, and playing football. We both have family parties, we just do things differently as different cultures. I also looked at the way they got married. The extended family would spit on the bride as she walked down the isle. The pastor spoke in all Greek and once they were married they had to take their first steps together as a couple around the alter. My aunt's wedding that I attended just a couple of months ago, was very laid back and calm. They walked down the isle, were married, and that was it.

I think it's really interesting learning and taking part in other cultures. One needs to have the culture clash and culture shock in their lives to completely understand the fact that everyone is different and just because one culture doesn't do it the same way that you're culture does it, doesn't mean by any means that they are wrong. Innovation, technology, and diffusion has played a huge role in the way many cultures are today. For the most part, it is because of these three things that a lot of cultures are linked together in some way. But on the other hand, I believe that ethnocentrism is something that can really hurt our cultures as a whole. It goes along with one culture thinking another culture is wrong just because they don't do things the same way. Judging a culture is the same as judging a person, it hurts the people involved especially when the person judging doesn't know anything about that specific culture. I think if more people would be open to letting in new and differnet ideas and cultures, our society would be a better place to live in and be apart of.