In Completing the Assignment Posed Below, Consider the Following Case

question 39

Essay

In completing the assignment posed below, consider the following case history:
Tony is a 13-year-old boy referred to the juvenile court for breaking a classmate's arm with a stick during an argument. The argument erupted after the classmate called Tony's father a "no-good drunk." Although this is Tony's first offense, he has a history of difficulties managing anger. School records show that he has been referred to the principal's office for fighting on four occasions in the past 2 years. Tony's mother says that, for as long as she can remember, her son has been difficult to control. She complains that he refuses to do homework, wears his hair and clothes in "outrageous" ways, and stays out with his friends until all hours of the night. She has tried grounding him and taking away privileges, but these efforts to change Tony have been unsuccessful.
Tony is the only child of May and Tom Smith. The family is not close. Tom works occasionally as a clerk in a convenience store, but he is unemployed much of the time. He drinks a lot, and he has lost two jobs because of his drinking. The family is poor and lives in a rundown section of Milwaukee.
Tom has told Tony many times to get a good education so he won't end up in a low-paying job like he has. Tony doesn't seem to listen. He gets poor grades in school and hates attending. He complains that his teachers think he's a bad kid and won't give him a chance.
Both May and Tom are fed up with Tony, who seems to be a burden to both of them. May told a social worker: "We've tried and tried to make Tony a good boy. We've had it. I hope the court locks him up for a long time. Tom and I are washing our hands of Tony after this."
When Tony was asked why he hit his classmate, he remarked: "He had it coming. Where I come from you don't let anybody push you around. My friends would have thought I was a real sissy if I didn't make him pay for what he said. He's just lucky I didn't hurt him worse than I did. My friends mostly carry knives, and some got guns so they would just cut him or shoot him. I let him off easy."
This case history can be analyzed from a number of theoretical perspectives. Choose two that we have studied and show how they might be usefully combined to understand Tony's behavior.

---

Definitions:

Gender

Social and cultural distinctions associated with being male, female, or non-binary.

Males Vs. Females

Comparative analysis often used in studies to explore differences or similarities between male and female subjects.

Cross-Classification Table

A tabular method for displaying the frequency distribution among variables in order to observe relationships.

Pie Charts

A circular graphical representation used to show the relative proportions of different categories of a whole.