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All God’s Children by Fox Butterfield

by Fox Butterfield

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read in July 2008

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Al said: " Society creates monsters and killers and it is the responability of all citizens to wake up to the idea that what government does it does in our name, and we must demand better.

Two Theories On Criminal Violence In All God’s Children

----------------- Society creates monsters and killers and it is the responability of all citizens to wake up to the idea that what government does it does in our name, and we must demand better.

Two Theories On Criminal Violence In All God’s Children

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David Zimet
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In giving an in-depth history of the Bosket family, the book All God’s Children by Fox Butterfield gives the reader a perspective into how a legacy of violent men began, and how the tradition of street toughness was passed down through four generations. The book also takes a brief survey of crime and punishment in the black community, and looks into the circumstances surrounding several criminal incidents. In the context of this paper, I will examine the roots and foreground causes for the criminal behavior of Pud, James, Butch, and Willie Bosket, as well as the other criminals discussed in the book, using two theories of criminology. One of the theories I will use is the one proposed by Jack Katz regarding the seductive quality of crime, while the other is the Differential Association theory developed by Edwin Sutherland.

In his theory, Katz talks about two different situations that can be found many times in the actions and motivations of the four Bosket men. One is the situation of the badass, who feels he must fight and be violent to earn respect and maintain his reputation. This reputation of being a badass was something that became very important to the Bosket men, becoming over time something similar to a family trade. The other is the situation of the righteous criminal, who is seduced into breaking the law by a belief that he holds the higher moral ground through his criminal actions.

Sutherland’s theory explains how criminals come to learn their criminal behavior through a learning process not unlike one that would transpire at a school, and then the lessons they learn are reinforced through direct observations of the values they learned being played out in the street by their peers. These two theories are not really at contrast with one another, but rather complement each other to give a more complete analysis of the crimes recounted in the course of the book.

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Jul 20, 2008 01:27PM · see review

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