Menace II Society Crime Analysis

After viewing the movie Menace II Society, I definitely realized how movies can create assumptions about crime and crime behavior.

First, I am going to give you a brief overview of what happened in the movie. The main character's name is Caine. He is a troubled man who at the beginning of the movie kills the owners of a convenience store. Then there is a flashback to his childhood. Both of his parents were drug addicts and dealers. He saw his father kill a man at a very young age. He ends up moving in with his grandparents to get away from his parents.

Caine grows up to be just like his parents. There are multiple events of Caine being shot, breaking the law, and running from the police. Caine is hired by a man named Chauncey but is arrested by the police. Caine then is questioned about his fingerprints matching some found on a bottle at the crime scene when he killed the owners of the convenience store. There is not enough evidence for him to get charged because the security video is gone. Caine then buys a car, and turns into a drug dealer. He then meets a girl named LLena. After this, his friend Ronnie invites him to move with her to Atlanta for a new job offer. They end up liking each other and making love. Caine sees his old boss making moves on her and ends up beating him up. He then sends the video tape to the police. He then is kicked out of his grandparents house and Caine decides to go to Atlanta. Then there is a drive by shooting and Caine is severely injured. He then slowly dies and realizes that all of the crime he has done in his life is catching up to him. He comes to realization that he wants to live but its too late.

So overall, the movie creates many assumptions about crime and crime behavior. This movie is taken place in downtown Los Angeles. It is a black community. There are already assumptions that in black communities there is crime involved. The crime behavior is influenced by friends. Many of the crimes have to deal with issues between the friends.

The ideas about the causes of criminal activity are shown by someone not being honest or fair. There is crime because someone feels that they did not get what they deserved. There is also criminal activity if someone is not treated nicely or made fun of. Most all of the criminal activity has some sort of meaning behind it. Not that it is right, but in their minds they feel that they need to do it.

In this movie, i think there are two of Rafters theories of criminality. One is biological. Caine is born into a family of drugs and crime. His parents were drug addicts so before he was born he was already addicted to some drugs. Then growing up with his parents and seeing all the drug dealing and crime he just falls into the place of his parents.

The second theory is environmental. All of the crime is usually influenced by people around them. Caine and his friends are like a pact and influence each other to stick up for one another. When someone is treated unfairly, they usually get revenge on the person who did the wrong. People and the environment around a person really influence the choices they make. When Caine grew up around this behavior and that is all he knows is "right." As sad as that it is, it is the truth.

I am not a fan of crime movies like this one, but after watching it, I really realized how movies use stereotypical aspects of people to create assumptions about crime and crime behavior.