Inside the Crips

The book Inside the Crips written by Colton Simpson with Ann Pearlman describes the life of Colton Simpson a former member of L.A.’s most notorious gang “The Crips”. In this essay I will explain five points Simpson states in his book. I will also apply Sutherland’s theory of differential association to explain and understand the behavior of Colton Simpson as a member of a delinquent gang. Using this theory I will suggest policies that can be used to reduce criminal behavior.

If the rewards are so low and the dangers are so high one would question why anyone would chose to join a gang. Simpson address’ this question and states his first point as to why he joined the crips and why others have as well. For former Crip Colton Simpson, membership in a gang provided everything he’d yearned for and lacked in his family life: acceptance, solidarity, a sense of belonging, approval and respect from others.

A second point that Simpson makes is that change takes time. Simpson points out that his growing social consciousness took place over a period of time. He states that his change from gang member to ordinary citizen occurred through gaining strong intellectual and political mentors. Simpson states that it took a very long time for him to realize that he was caught up in revenge and protection while in the war between the crips and bloods. He realized that they were doomed to fight until they were all exhausted or dead.

A third point of Simpson’s book is to give readers an exact image of what it is like to be in such an elite gang at a young age and how hard it is to get out. Simpson describes the Crips function as a shadow society operating furtively within a hostile

larger one, complete with rules and regulations, a complex hierarchy, containing its own language. He explains that joining a gang is a way of life. He states that if you’re born in the hood you’re either the victim or the perpetrator. The choice is yours to make.

A fourth point that Simpson makes is that prison does not help to change a gang member it actually strengthens gang members. In prison he became stronger gang soldier, he participated in a gang system whose rules and unique ethics he quickly mastered. In prison he actually gained more hatred towards whites due to the war in Calapatria prison between the Crips and the corrections officers.

Simpson’s fifth and most important point in is book is to divert youngsters from street crime. Simpson writes in his book,

I pushed people violently away form me, my homies and our space. It was not out of anger but obligation I sincerely thought I was a soldier in a legitimate, necessary war. But now the thought of pushing someone’s child to extinction has made me an insomniac. I don’t think I’ll ever sleep till this stops. That’s why I wrote this book. I’m crying for help, hoping you will listen and care, hoping all of us together will work to stop the sources of the gangs.

Simpson urges us to help prevent street gangs from forming and from taking lives.

The theory which I feel explains Simpson’s actions as a delinquent gang member is Sutherland’s theory of differential association. This theory explains that criminal behavior is a learned behavior through interaction with other persons in the process of communication. This process of learning takes place within intimate personal groups. Sutherland suggests that learning criminal behavior includes the techniques of committing the crime and the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and

attitudes.

Sutherland’s principal definition of differential association is that a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law. He explains that when people become criminals it’s because of the contacts with criminal patterns and also because of isolation from anti-criminal patterns.

There are several ways to use this theory to explain Simpson’s actions. Since Simpson was raised in a dangerous neighborhood in Los Angeles, California it was very easy to learn criminal behavior. All he had to do was look outside his window or walk into the street and he would have access to criminal behavior. After meeting Smiley, a member of the crips, Simpson quickly learned criminal behavior through interaction with him and other Crip’s.

The street gang the Crips was an intimate, personal group that Simpson joined and learned