Social Attitudes and Stereotypes

Throughout The November Criminals, the author suggests that even people who have no racial biases tend to judge people and events based on their own experiences, which includes their social attitudes and the stereotypes they accept as fact, sometimes unconsciously. There are several examples of this theme throughout the novel, but there are also a few twists and turns that challenge these attitudes.

One of the first examples of this theme is seen as everyone jumps to the conclusion that drugs or gangs were at the heart of the shooting that left Kevin and two co-workers dead. Kevin is black, which prompts the immediate image that he is involved in drugs, gangs, or both. After Addison and Digger begin looking into Kevin's background, they question that stereotype, believing that he is simply too ordinary to be involved in either. They work on that...