Crime in Crash

I chose to review the movie Crash directed by Paul Haggis which featured many different crimes specifically dealing with racial issues throughout the movie. After closely examining the movie I will explain the elements of "motivation" and "opportunity" as well as touch on the impact of bystanders, aftermath of crime, victim precipitation and correlation of gender and crime.

This movie features several small stories which intertwine during a short period of time in a city involving a collection of inter-related characters such as: two black male car thieves who are constantly categorizing society on how it views race, a white district attorney with a high class wife suffering with anger issues, a racist white cop who has been in the force many years, his partner a young white cop new to the police force disgusted with his partners actions, and a black successful director and his wife who deal with the racist cop on more than one occasion.

There was a particular scene in the movie where a hijacking occurs. This scene involves many aspects to the crime including, motivation defined as the wants, needs and beliefs that drive a character , opportunity defined as a possibility due to a favorable combination of circumstance , impact of a bystander is when bystanders may call the police of offer to act as witnesses , aftermath of a crime defined as events that occur after the committed crime , as well as victim precipitation defined as when the opportunity of a crime is created by some actions of the victim . There were several events throughout the movie that could be considered acts of motivation; at the start of the scene the two black male car thieves came out of the coffee shop and started walking down the street, the two males were very agitated with the way they were treated as customers. Even though the waitress was black they felt stereotyped as “all blacks don’t tip and thus the reasoning why she did not wait on them. The one black male was also bothered by the fact that other people were constantly starring at them simply because they were in the area of town populated mostly by a majority of white. He felt they were being frowned upon as street thugs. When the black males they chose to hijack a car belonging to a white couple who just happened to be cruising in a brand new Lincoln Navigator. The black males often stole vehicles and brought them to the local chop shop for quick cash; this vehicle became a target because of their wants and needs for money. There were also many factors that lead to the opportunity of the crime that was committed such as: the black males were walking down the road in an area of town that was populated by rich people with expensive vehicles, when they noticed a couple (the district attorney and his classy wife) walking towards their Lincoln Navigator. They waited until the vehicle was unlocked at which time they approached the couple quickly. The black males approached the vehicle armed with hand guns pointing them at the victims making their odds better which also help them prevent a confrontation with the victims. The impact of bystanders also played a role during this scene. As the two black males approached the vehicle with armed weapons, they yelled out “get back” in order to frighten the bystanders. All the bystanders quickly jumped to the wall with their backs turned to the crime that was being committed and offered no assistance what so ever. It was unknown in the film if any of the bystanders called the