American Gangster Movie American Gangster. Essay

Frank ends up in prison and comes out after 15 years a frail and misplaced person who no longer fits in the Harlem streets, no longer the feared drug baron that he was. It is also a positive experience since even in the midst of the rotten and corrupt police force, there was Richie who refused to compromise his personal and work ethics at all costs.

I did experience a cultural shock, since it is not a common scene for me to experience such extent of drug dealings and prostitution and a rotten police force that ended up being incriminated up to three quarters of the entire force responsible for Harlem being convicted for drug related cases, this was shocking.

The theory that best fits the movie and the experiences in the movies is the Social / learning theory and aggressive personality. There is a lot of influence that the society has on the individuals since the individuals are a reflection of the society and what the society feeds into them. Arthur Niederhoffer, a psychologist and criminologist postulated that the individual become indoctrinated by what he sees happening around him and that shapes the behavior in the society.In the affiliation hypothesis, Delatrre, E., (2006) argues that the behavior of an individual is a total sum of what he sees happening to him and mainly from the senior (older) members of the society that he lives in. this was exactly what Frank experienced from an older mentor who was dying, as well as passed on to his younger brothers. However this theory may have a shortcoming as indicated by Charlie who refuses to be influenced to the negative by the society.

Delattre, E. (2006). Character and cops: Ethics in policing (5th ed., pp. 10, 79, 85, 88).

Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Retrieved August 5, 2011 from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/359222/predominant_theories_of_police_corruption_pg2.html?cat=17

The Internet Movie Database,(2011). Biography of Ridley Scott. Retrieved August 5, 2011 from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000631/bio.....