Essay Sample on The Buffalo Crime Family: Pursuing the American Dream Through Deviance

The Buffalo crime family is an American mafia group of Italian descent stationed in Buffalo, New York. They migrated to the US in the early 1900 from Sicily, an island in the Mediterranean, Italy's territory (Fairbanks 2019). The family is accused of selling narcotics, racketeering, extortion, loan sharking, and bookmaking. There has also been a case of them murdering their competitors. Very many immigrants from Europe came to the US, hoping to achieve the American dream. Through hard work, education, and resilience, the immigrants thought they would have a prosperous life. But this was not the case; there were no jobs, and discrimination on race was thriving. If individual papers were not in order, it was hard for him to get a job. The immigrants had families, and they needed to be given basic human needs. Consequently, the heads of the families had to look for alternative ways to provide for their families.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The Buffalo crime family, just like other immigrants, faced a similar predicament. Just like any immigrant in the US, they came to America with a lot of hopes and expectations. On the grounds, that things were not as they hoped for; they had to pursue the American dream through other means. It is important to note that society in the US judges the prosperity of an individual by the amount of wealth he has accumulated or created. Thus the Buffalo crime family felt like that society was undermining them because they were not rich. When we analyze their behavior by employing Robert Merton's strain theory of deviance, we have a better understanding of what drove them to deviant behavior.

According to the theory of Robert, it is the community that forces its citizens to act in a deviant manner when they fail to succeed (Inderbitzin, Bates, and Gainey 2013). There are very few opportunities in our communities that every member can pursue to be successful. Some will thrive while others will languish in poverty. There are people who will not accept the fate that they are not rich. Consequently, the individual would have to adapt to innovation. The innovation here means they used any means, legal or illegal, to change their situation. They do not consider if their actions are acceptable or unacceptable by the community as long as they achieve their objectives.

The Buffalo crime family adapted to the situation by innovation and joined crime so as to climb up the social ladder. They engaged in crimes such as racketeering, murder, bookmaking, bootlegging, and even extortion. Thus family employed means that is not socially acceptable to achieve financial empowerment. Not all people can acquire wealth and prosperity legitimately in a normal society. This theory explains why the level of crime in places of low income is more compared to affluence areas. It is worth noting that there are other adaptations that individuals can acquire. There are those who will reject the standards and means of developing them set by society. They will form their own measures and ways of achieving them. Others will use the same socially approved means but seek lesser goals. Others will try to escape the set standards and objectives while others will abide by what is socially acceptable. In conclusion, the Buffalo crime family migrated to the United States to fulfill the American dream. When they reached the country, they saw the community places a lot of emphasis on money. They could not get fulfilling jobs, which could make them achieve the American dream. They were left in a moral dilemma and chose crime a deviant behavior as an innovative way to adapt to their community.

References

Fairbanks, Phil. 2019. "A Canadian Murder. ‘Buffalo’s Crime Family.' Is The Mafia Still Around?” The Buffalo News. https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/a-canadian-murder-buffalos-crime-family-is-the-mafia-still-around/article_08c2da26-27c8-5bdc-89de-da8b3757c265.html.

Inderbitzin, Michelle Lee, Kristin Ann Bates, and Randy R Gainey. 2013. Deviance And Social Control. Los Angeles: SAGE.