By so doing, they hope to gain acceptance within that community as well. Question: The question addressed here is whether cultural and community forces are causing individuals to commit delinquent acts as a way to be accepted and feel as though they belong.

Information: Information that was important to this study was a chart detailing the concerns for individuals in what was deemed the 'lower class culture.' In addition, each one of these concerns was addressed from the point-of-view of what they meant to the individuals within that culture.

Inferences: The main inference in this study is that individuals that come from lower-income and disadvantaged homes and communities often join gangs at a higher rate. When they do this, they work to be accepted by other gang members, and crime and delinquency are often ways to gain this acceptance.

Concept: In order to understand the reasoning of the author, it is important to know that they studied individuals in a particular geographic area, and that other geographic areas might be different in whether individuals join gangs at the same rate and what kinds of 'initiation' these gangs have.

Assumptions: The author takes for granted that individuals who join gangs are underprivileged, and that they join these gangs to gain acceptance, instead of other potential reasons.

Implications: Accepting the author's reasoning would indicate that 'lower class' people join gangs because they cannot get acceptance elsewhere, and that 'higher class' people already have that acceptance - or seek it in healthier ways.

Point-of-View: I think that the author has a point, but that money does not buy class.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to look at a program that was designed to keep individuals 'in line'...

These people were not violent criminals, but were derelicts, homeless people, drunks, prostitutes and others that many people simply see as a 'bother' instead of a real danger.
Question: The question was whether an officer spending a lot of time in the neighborhood and getting to know the regulars would help to reduce the rate of crime and the problems that were seen there, by getting the 'regular troublemakers' to follow some very simple rules, such as drinking in side streets instead of main intersections.

Information: One of the researchers followed the officer around to collect data. This allowed the researcher to be completely aware of what steps the officer was taking and whether these were working well to curb some of the problems that were otherwise seen in the neighborhood.

Inferences: Conclusions to be gained from the data include the idea that a white officer trying to control a predominately black neighborhood is not necessarily a concern, and that the neighborhood benefitted from getting to know the officer.

Concept: In order to understand the author's reasoning, it is important to understand that the goal was not to eradicate crime, but to create neighborhoods that were more comfortable to live in and where strangers would be noticed.

Assumptions: What is missing is whether this same program or idea would work in other cities and other areas of the country.

Implications: Accepting the author's reasoning would mean that we would see whether this could be extended to other cities and assume that we could.

Point-of-View: If this idea will work in Newark, it would be a great idea to extend it to other cities and see if it works as well, or if it is specific to that city for some reason.