Venkatesh's Survey Summary

Venkatesh’s survey did not work because it was too narrow and broad. Not all people are black and poor, also not all people have a view of being black and poor in just 5 categories. Many people have preferences that could fall into a numerous amount of categories. Yes, you could have a survey that only gave 5 options to choose from but no one’s real opinion falls smack dab into one of them. There’s so many variables and add-ons to every opinion, that if you would do a true survey writing down everything your heard, you could write stories of how someone felt on a single topic. Venkatesh wanted to know the life style of a poor African American person, but you can’t know how someone lives their lives from just a few words written on a piece of paper. Culture and life style is not only
Once he observed and interacted with the gang he started to realize that this so called group of thugs and criminals were just living the only way they knew how to. He started to see that not only are they selling crack but it goes deeper then just a bunch of people selling drugs on the corner, he saw that this was a business. There was branches and ranks to every person and you had to earn respect. This gang was not just a bunch of people that didn’t know better but this was people that were skilled in the art of selling and profiting. He also saw that the most important part of being in a gang was family was everything. These are the people that you grew up with and you can never forget where you came from. So this is why J.T. would pay a year’s wage to fallen gang member’s family, because this was no game. The stuff they did was extremely dangerous and 1 out of 4 people would die from this business. Research method is important because we need to know why people do what they do and what drives them to act the way they act. You have to know that you are not able to just observe a community from just a bunch of words on a