The biography “There Are No Children Here” by Alex Kotlowitz, shows the journey of two young boys and the challenges they face growing up in inner-city Chicago. The River family lives in downtown Chicago, at Governor Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex, where violence and poverty are at an all-time high. The two boys, Lafayette and Pharoah, live in a small apartment with their siblings and their mother, LaJoe. With their father rarely around, Lafeyette felt the need to step up and be someone her family could rely on by helping her mother around the house or with her younger siblings. LaJoe believes she failed as a mother to her three older children because they were involved in drugs and were in prison at least once. They had all fallen into the social norms of prostitution, drug dealing and trouble with the law. LaJoe believes that education is the only way out of the inner city and its troubles. Over the years in Henry Horner, the neighborhood slowly fell into disrepair, middle-class families fled, and employment declined significantly. For the city, “unemployment was officially estimated at 19 percent; unofficially, it was probably much higher” (Kotlowitz 11). Their neighborhood was once one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city, but it became a regular scene of shootings. Violence is so common there that police don't count every shooting because it's a normal thing that happens in these neighborhoods. Pharoah calls the neighborhood a "graveyard" because of the number of people of all ages who have died due to the many problems that exist in the downtown area, such as gang violence or drugs. Now their neighborhood was like a ghost town, there were no entertainment for children like bowling or public libraries. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The Boy aims to show that there is no sense of community or trust among people because they feel like they are just trying to get by and avoid getting involved in the problems. He wants to show the life story of children growing up in areas of poverty and high crime and how that can affect someone's life. The broken windows theory states that visual manifestations of social disorganization are the root cause of crime. The public housing complex itself does not look safe with broken mailboxes, dirty streets and no street lights outside the complex to make people feel safe. It was even worse inside the complex, with the River family housing eight people in an apartment barely bigger than a prison cell, with no laundry, and cockroaches and maggots everywhere every day. It doesn't help that there are no libraries nearby, indicating a lack of education for nearby schools. Additionally, there are no extracurricular activities such as clubs, sports or private lessons. This causes social problems and delinquency because if there is no entertainment for children, they will choose to get involved in gangs or drugs. Gangs tend to recruit young children to do their dirty work and boys don't want to get involved in that. Lafeyette says there are “a lot of people in the projects who say they won't do drugs, they won't drop out of school, they won't be on the street.But they do now. Never say never” (Kotlowitz 29). This means that the projects change people badly, they are different from the person they were before moving there. This pushes children towards drug use, without trying or even just going to school, causing them to drop out of school without any sort of education and the only way is to join a gang or become a drug dealer to survive. Lafeyette feels like he needs to set a good example for his siblings because they didn't set one for him. He must be the one who does not fit into the stereotype of the project and does not change his family's way of life. By the end of the summer, “police recorded that one person every three days had been beaten, shot, or stabbed on Horner” (Kotlowitz 32). This comes as no surprise to residents of downtown Chicago's public complexes, as it has become a societal norm that further divides their community. The neighborhoods and environments in which people live influence criminal behavior. If someone's friends are involved in criminal activity, then they might feel pressured by their peers to do the same thing. Social problems arise in inner cities due to poverty, drug addiction and population turnover, which also lead to crime. Children who do not do well in school, who enter an unstable family, or who live in a dangerous area will show signs of social disorganization and be more likely to commit criminal acts than those who have a stable home life. Differential association theory states that when individuals are in the presence of other people, they tend to adopt some of their characteristics, such as attitudes and motivations toward criminal behavior. Edwin Sutherland states that all behavior is learned and is not the result of a biological or psychological defect. In inner-city Chicago, the norm was to be part of a gang and force people to commit a crime which spread violence throughout the neighborhood. Social learning theory shows the learning process and social behavior of an individual, suggesting that new behaviors can be received by imitating and observing the actions of others. Once they see someone doing something, they apply these behaviors to themselves and assume that if that person can do it, then they can too. I chose this particular theory because I think there are a lot of things in this story that explain why kids end up on the wrong path of gangs, drugs, and violence in the inner cities of Chicago . This story shows young boys growing up in a dangerous environment, with the norm that children there don't get an education and end up on the streets with the wrong people. They see criminal behavior everywhere they go and have societal norms that model this behavior to the point where they get in trouble with the law. They don't think about punishments and only think about the rewards their actions can bring them. Lafayette's friend Rickey seems to be a bad influence on the boys, which could lead Lafeyette down the wrong path. Rickey suggested that they both steal tapes from a video tape store, but Pharoah insisted that they leave. When he said no, Pharoah was “disappointed in Rickey, but even more so in Lafeyette, who seemed to give in to his friend's pressure” (Kotlowitz 151). The River boys are constantly in contact with people who engage in deviant behavior and it is normal for them to..