Film Analysis: High On Crack Street

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Ever since history and law have been written down, the question of why criminals do what they do has always been difficult to answer. Explanations ranging from physical appearance, genetics and social environment have all tried to help answer the question. Over time, more explanations as to why criminals do what they do have changed and evolved. It doesn’t matter what your opinion as to why criminals do what they do, every circumstance is different. The documentary “High on Crack Street” makes every viewer wonder just what made these somewhat “normal” people turn into what society would see as social deviants. In early history, determining what made a criminal do what he or she does was usually targeted at physical appearances. Early sociologists said that you could determine if someone was a criminal by features in the face like a strong jaw, or deep set eyes. They never set out to answer the question as to why they committed criminal acts; all that public officials did was charge someone who “looked” like a criminal as guilty and the reasoning was that they had the physical appearance of a criminal. Other methods of determining if someone was a criminal was…show more content…
An example is Dick Eklund, a boxer shown in the film. Dick was an unbelievable prize fighter who boxed Sugar Ray Lenard on HBO years ago. Now he is a crack addict living in Lowell, Ma and wasting his life away. What made Dick resort to a life of crime? The answer can be simple: he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and tried a terrible drug. The reason that he is stealing and living in poverty just to afford his crack is because he is so caught up in his addiction that he cannot make good decisions to do what’s right. His only goal when he wakes up is to get high, and he will do anything in his power to get high and if that involves breaking the law then he is ready to take that

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