Discussion Questions for Chapter 3

Bernie Goetz is my opinion is a cold-blooded murderer. The main fact of the story is that we went onto an express train with a gun and the intention of killing. He walked over and sat down next to the kids ( who he already knew might start trouble,) and as soon as they tried to rob him, he shot them down cruelly. He was going out into the night looking for trouble, and he found it. There is nothing heroic about what he did. He is a racist jackass.
Yes, the kids were in fact starting trouble on the train, but he physically and knowingly put himself in that situation. If someone knows that it might be dangerous to jump into fire, they don't jump into a burning building. He may have been trying to handle crime, but he definitely went about it in the wrong way.
yes, I believe that certain individuals are more sensitive to their environment than others. I am strong believer that one's environment has much control over their actions. I believe that in nature verses nurture, nurture will always have a greater impact.
To some extent I do believe that crime is contagious. The power of the aesthetics of what is going around one has such a huge impact on how they act. If a student is sitting is a room filled with junk, garbage, and loud music...chances are they are not going to get any homework done. If that same student is in a clean, peaceful room, chances are they will at least get some homework done. If a group of kids are in a run down neighborhood and all they ever see is vandalism, they're going to think that this is acceptable.
I would say that a person may have certain traits as far as criminal personality type goes--but overall how a person grows up and what they are exposed to has more of an impact on their actions.
With the video which we saw in class during the peer presentation, I now believe that the living conditions and the environment set a tone for how the prison is run and how the inmates lives are run. Personally, I do not think that prisons should better their living conditions because this is punishment. These people are serving a sentence for crime they have committed, but I still believe that if the living conditions and environment were changed, the feeling in the prison would change substantially . Even something as small as having everyone wear different colors of uniforms instead of the usual orange.
Gandhi and Mandela are exceptions to this rule. The had such a passion for a cause which overcame the brutal environment they endured. They were extremely strong individuals and surpassed this rule because of their believes and passions in life.