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GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
Sociology of Delinquency (SOCI 302)

Study Questions for "Getting Paid": Youth, Crime, and Work In the Inner City
(Mercer Sullivan, 1989)

How are we approaching this book?

All groups should discuss questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, and 18.

You will also be assigned to focus on a particular neighborhood. You should answer questions 9, 10, 11, 15, and 16 in relation to "your" neighborhood. Your participation in preparing answers to the questions that apply to "your" neighborhood will be worth 3 points; if you are not in class to work with your group and be part of the discussion, you will not get these points.


Chapter 1
1. What is the research question examined in Sullivan's book?

2. Sullivan identifies the shortcomings of ethnographic research in this chapter. How does his book attempt to reconcile the methodological divide between ethnographic studies that focus on collective behavior and quantitative large scale-studies that analyze differences among atomized individuals? How does Sullivan's work attempt to overcome the problem he identifies with subcultural theories: that they are overly deterministic and fail to allow for changes over time and situational factors within individuals?

3. Why use the term "cliques" rather than subculture to refer to the grouping of young men within this study?

4. What are the premises of "segmented labor theory"?

Chapter 2
5. Describe La Barrida, Projectville, and Hamilton Park. Your group will be assigned one of these neighborhoods. Include in your description: the ethnic composition, the ages of the study subjects, housing, employment opportunities, family socioeconomic characteristics, educational attainment, attitudes of parents toward education, and crime rates.

Chapter 3
6. Sullivan asserts that the consequences of schooling are looked at differently by economic theorists and sociocultural theorists. Describe these two perspectives.

8. The schools use tracking. What tracks are available and what kinds of work do they prepare students to enter?

9. What were the experiences of the clique members in school in LaBarrida, Projectville, and Hamilton Park, respectively? Your group will focus on one of these neighborhoods.

Chapter 4
10. What are the barriers to employment that the residents of the three neighborhoods face? (Answer this question in the context of your group's neighborhood.)

11. In answering the previous question, keep in mind that the physical proximity of centers of employment is a key variable in the experiences of those in the three neighborhoods. What are the employment opportunities for the neighborhood your group is focusing on? (Sorry about that dangling proposition!)

Chapter 5
12. What does Sullivan mean when he asserts that the same factors of human capital and segmented labor markets that influence careers in schooling and the legitimate labor market also influence careers in crime? Relate this to Cloward's article.

13. Crime also differs from legitimate economic activity . What are the differences? Why do these differences make it important to take into account social factors when looking at decisions to enter into criminal activity?

14. What is the linkage between early involvement in violence crime and later involvement in economic crime? What motivates crime?

15. Discuss the presence or absence of gangs in the neighborhood on which your group is focusing.

Chapters 6, 7, and 8
16. Describe crime in your group's neighborhood, its types, its incidence, and so on.

Chapter 9
17. What were the continuities in crime across the three neighborhoods? What were the variations across the three neighborhoods.

Chapters 10 and 11
18. What are Sullivan's conclusions? What strategies does he suggest to decrease juvenile crime in urban areas? How are these conclusions related to other theories?

Patricia Masters Online updated on 08/15/04