John Dillinger

Bohn in June 22, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indiana, John Herbert Dillinger started his conflict with the police as a teenager. Mainly, in his early years, Dillinger got into trouble over fighting and petty thefts. After moving to Mooresville at around 1920, Dillinger got his first arrest in 1922 over auto theft (Girardin & Helmer, 1994). He later robbed a grocery store and was arrested the following day. He was put in jail and granted a sentence of between 10 and 20 years. He was, however released on parole after only nine and a half years. During his time in prison, he also sharpened his knowledge of crime and got himself a network of criminals.

Most of his criminal activities were committed during the two years that after his release. He mainly concentrated on bank robberies. Over the next one and a half years, he and his gang robbed over ten banks. In the event, they robbed over 300,000 dollars from the various banks. This paper attempts to display the role social disorganization crime theories in the crimes associated with Dillinger (Hamilton, 1989).

According to social disorganization theory, the society can be characterized into two groups. The first group is the social organization while the second group is the social disorganization (Kubrin & Weitzer, 2003). In essence, the theory assumes that crime is part of the society. In every society, there must be a group of people who commit crime and another group that tries to uphold peace and justice. The social organization has a cohesion and solidarity which help to lower crime. On the other hand, the social disorganization is incapable of upholding similar values and therefore crime is high among them.

In 1920, Dillinger’s father thought the city was destroying his son and decided to relocate to a better neighbourhood. The society of his youth is therefore likely to have appreciated conflict and made it easy for the youth to get involved in crime. The social disorganization theory is effective in defining the society of the book.

Dillinger is also evidently surrounded by criminals. In the nine years after prison, Dillinger is trained to become a criminal. His skills are sharpened to the extent that he becomes the leader of his group. His gang is known as Dillinger’s Gang. The prison can be defined as the social disorganization. In this society, they need to be just is obsolete. It is this society that arms him with the tools he requires in engaging in crime.

Dillinger was arrested the second time for attempting to break out his friends from jail. He was arrested and put to jail in Lima, Ohio. Before long, some of those he had tried to break out helped to break him out of prison dressed as policemen. The situation depicts a society that is capable of everything. The Society of Dillinger is very first to perform criminal offences.

Conformity helps Dillinger to learn the better forms of robbery. Rather than robbing small grocery stores and getting away, he gets into bank robbery. Here, he is likely to get more in tems of returns. His form of conformity is known as informative conformative. He gets into active training over the period of 9 ½ years and leans everything he requires to know about robbery. He now becomes capable of administering his criminal ectivities without being caught.

The American society is indirectly supportive of criminal activities. While the society highly appreciates success, it does not have a similar appreciation for someone to get involved in moral activities. Instead, it appreciates a form of doctrine known as the means-disjuncture. It does not matter how you act provided you succeeed in doing what was required of you. This allows him to get trained about get robbery without strain to family.

According to social disorganization theory, societies with high conflict raise the youth inappropriately hence leading to a society that is inclined to crime. Dillinger is brought up as a bully, a petty thief and a child with a bewildering personality who likes fighting. The upbringing may have contributed to Dillinger’s adoption of crime. At only 22, he is arrested for auto theft. The society evidently qualifies in this regard (Miller, 2012).

Social disorganization theory argues that the land adjacent to the CBD is often characterized by high crime rates. During the early years of his life, Dillinger and his family lived in the city of Indianapolis (Matera, 2004). This may have contributed to his entry into crime. The society adopts criminal activities based on the high population and the lack of proper mechanisms to raise children (Sampson, 1992).

Indianapolis has a high immigration index. This index is a likely cause of a high rate of crime. The woman who diverted information about the whereabouts of Dillinger on the night he was shot dead was waiting to be deported to her own state. She, however managed to get a deal with the FBI to divert the whereabouts of Dillinger. The woman was accused of not acting within her morals.

Differential opportunity is baesd on the inability of all individuals to get access to resources that would make it possible for them to succeed. In a similar way, not all individuals may get access to criminality and delinguency. Afeter getting into prison, he gets access to better tools to allow him to get into crime stress-free.

Other factors also contribute towards turning Dillinger into a full scale criminal. First, he is initially unable to achieve thos goals that are labeled as positive. His failure to continue working in the army requires him, for example, to prove himself capable hence pointing him towards crime. His childhood is also characterized by violenc formt he father. This may help in turning him into a criminal.

In conclusion, the social disorganization theory depicts the society of Indianapolis as a one that had been a major contribution to the criminality of Dillinger. This theory is only based on the environment. The decision making process is not completely clarified. In this regard, the theory fails in certain ways. The theory, however does well in this case as it gets a lot of support from Dillinger’s case. For Dillinger, the decision making process seems to have been prompted by the society along with the environment in which he lived. The death of Dillinger came as a surprise for many. He had escaped from the hands of the police so many times that it seemed unlikely to nab him. One thing that contributed to his arrest is the very society in which he lived. Dillinger had no concern for his society. Despite the fact that many of his teachings had been done by the very society, he bore a form of distaste for it. This distaste contributed to the arrest in that he had not shown any mercy to anyone beforehand. Secondly, his trust of criminals alone contributed as well. His first arrest earned him 9 years while earning his partner who had driven away with the runaway car 5 years. His death was after the betrayal of one of his companions.

References

Girardin, G., & Helmer, W. (1994). Dillinger. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Hamilton, S. (1989). Public enemy number one. Bloomington, Minn.: Abdo & Daughters.

Kubrin, C., & Weitzer, R. (2003). New directions in social disorganization theory. Journal Of Research In Crime And Delinquency, 40(4), 374–402.

Maccabee, P. John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks’ Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul, 1920-1936.

Matera, D. (2004). John Dillinger. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.

Miller, W. (2012). The social history of crime and punishment in America. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE.

Sampson, R. (1992). Family management and child development: Insights from social disorganization theory. Advances In Criminological Theory, 3, 63–93.