Saints and the Rouchnecks

The Saints and the Roughnecks was an analysis in the delinquency of two groups from two different socioeconomic groups. The Saints were from privileged families and, despite being more delinquent than the Roughnecks, were viewed as being normal rowdy teenagers.
The Saints are the upper class boys. These boys get good grades and they do a lot of extracurricular activities. So, people think they are good kids. They escape class and do reckless things on the weekend. They never got caught because people never saw them do anything. The Roughnecks are a group of lower class boys that attend the same high school as the saints. They were average students and they hardly ever escaped class but the roughnecks would always get into trouble because they had no car to go anywhere, so they would have to stay in town. They would do things like beat each other up, steal things and other stuff. Most of the boys have been arrested and spent the night in jail. People in town thought the roughnecks were going to turn out bad and that the saints were going to succeed. Only three boys out of the eight roughnecks succeed with not turning out bad. And also five out of the six saints succeeded and only one of the saints turned out into not succeeding.
These two groups of boys came from two different back grounds they were treated very differently. It makes us feel sad that the town judged the roughnecks and they never even really knew about the saints. If they knew what the saints did it would probably change their minds.
If the saints were caught by the cops they would use their manners. They charmed the cops because that is what they learned from their upper class teachings, to treat adults with respect. That seems sneaky, also unfair to the lower class because they probably don’t get away with teachings like that. If a lower class person was in the same situation as the saints, they would just take what the cop has to say and not try to get out of it.

The first of these, the Saints, was a group of kids who were defined as "good." They came from good families and were, apparently, well behaved. The school also had another group, the Roughnecks, who were defined as the "bad" boys. In fact, they did not do as much as the Saints but they were defined as troublemakers. The police responded to these troublemakers and them to the police, in terms of their definition. One can argue that both were bad, but had different labels attached.

This article makes me think that it’s not just money which can make people treat you differently; it can also be the color of your skin, the race they belong, the culture they’ve grown and something else. The study didn't necessarily conclude anything other than showing the discrepancy in the perception of delinquency. It utilized labeling theory as a way to look at this.