“So I Could Go Home” On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it …show more content…
As said by Governor George Ryan, “Since 1973, over 130 people have been released from death rows throughout the country due to evidence of their wrongful convictions.” With each of these wronged convictions, the victim who should rightfully be convicted was able to walk free and possibly continue to commit crimes. Many of these wronged convictions entail parts of conflict theory with them because the dominant group will view things that they believe are socially deviant as criminal. The example in class of the 1992 Chicago gang ordinance shows how the dominant group, the police force, viewed standing on a street corner as socially deviant and thus, labeled it criminal. In The Central Park Five, the five who were convicted were in Central Park late at night, which was socially deviant. Since there was crime that was committed that night, it was easy to take the socially deviant situation of the kids being in the park late at night, them being in the same place as the crime, and them all being non-white and the victim being white and turn the crime on them. At the start of the night, there were kids who were throwing rocks at cars and assaulting homeless people to the extent of smashing one with a beer bottle. Out of all of the kids who were in the park that night, when they all took off running, it didn’t matter which five were stopped and taken to the police station, as long as there were non-white and in the park that night they could have been one of the “central park five”. “Central park five” turns into a label knowing that regardless of who the kid was and their background, the officers involved were going to manipulate they into confessing to the crime and then end up being convicted. Crime today involves conflict theory and can
In 1979 two black assailants forced a man and a women at gun point into the man’s car at a drive-in grocery store. As they were going down the highway the perpetrators robbed both victims, then forced the man out of the car. After a failed escape attempted by the woman, the two men drove her to a nearby
During the 1800s, the gangs that evolved in the New York were involved in criminal activities such as robbery, prostitution, and murder as well. It is evident that even the most fierce and crime-hardened city occupants. One of the gangs that dominated the Manhattan neighborhoods is The Forty Thieves. The group was founded by Irish thieves who first met in a grocery store and dive bar which was owned by a female named Rosanna Peers. The leader of the gang was Edward Coleman who was later hanged for being associated with the murder of his wife. The group was composed of approximately forty members who were young apprentices in the city. The gang was involved in criminal activities such as stealing a particular amount of goods on a daily basis
This movie was very sad but depicted the many social problems of struggling black communities in the early 1990’s. We learned in Adler, Mueller, & Laufer how criminal behavior as a result of frustrations suffered by lower-class individuals deprived of legitimate means to reach their goals are
In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were arrested and charged for brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park. News media swarmed the case, business it "the crime of the century." But the constancy about what really happened didn't become clear until after the five had spent years in prison for a felony they didn't commit. With THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, this story of injustice finally gotta the telling it demerit. Based on Sarah Burns' best-selling book and co-directed by her husband David McMahon and generator, the beloved doc filmmaker Ken Burns, this agitator film tells the riveting anecdote of innocent young men scapegoated for a heinous crime, and serves as a mirror for our times. (c) IFC Filmsmore
Jill Leovy’s Ghettoside is a nonfiction book that goes into depth about the homicide rates in the United States, specifically in one community—black communities. Written in the third person point of view, Leovy explores the high homicide rates in young black males in southern Los Angeles that are invisible and deemed unworthy for attention by the police and media because of all the internal problems that have arisen over the years. For the most part, Leovy explores how John Skaggs, a middle-aged white detective, treats every homicide case equally regardless of skin color as opposed to many police officers. This book really changed my perspective on world matters and helped
The increase in population due to the Great Migration led Chicago to be the nation’s fastest growing city. In the city, homicide rates increased dramatically. The nature of homicide among African Americans in Chicago changed when the traditional impulsive violence between young boys became family violence or fights with acquaintances. Essentially, the Southern African Americans who moved to northern cities for freedom still experienced discrimination in jobs and housing from whites living in the neighborhoods prior. Many of them became frustrated about this and proceeded to demonstrate that through violence. In result of the increased violence, juvenile courts were developed. To address the concerns of juvenile delinquency, Chicago initially advocated courts to punish them for the acts of violence. The courts were filled with cases of violence between races due to the increasing racial tensions in neighborhoods throughout Chicago. Often, racist comments would be made, or an African American would fight against segregation or speak out and there would be a fight. Acts of violence became more and more common throughout the city and the juvenile courts were only one way to attempt to solve it. In Standing at Armageddon: A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era, it is said that the violence in Chicago was “the
Throughout the history of law enforcement within the United States, theories has been explored and implemented as polices in addressing deviant behaviors produced by humans. Models such as Crime Control through the Conflict perceptive suggest the human nature is persuaded by social opportunities and considered a fundamental aspect of social life (Schmalleger, 2009, p. 347). However, social disorders must be addressed in a cordial and civil procedural fairness; thus, individual rights guaranteed by policies such as Due Process ensure that individuals under allegations are treated equally and just. Although crime and deviant behaviors exist within our communities, policies are intended to reduce such disorders by following cohesive criminal justice frameworks with the intentions of protecting individuals accused of crimes. Crime Contro...
Crime and Criminal Justice social problems are some of the most complex problems we have in American society. The four different perspective all have their own vastly different theory of how they view crime. I think the most interesting perspectives are the functionalist perspective and the symbolic interactionist perspective. A common functionalist perspective is one by Émile Durkheim, one of the first sociologists. Durkheim’s theory is that deviance can be functional because it affirms moral boundaries, promotes social unity, and social change. Robert K Merton applies Durkheim’s theory to “develop the strain theory of criminal behavior” (358, Leon-Guerrero). The Strain Theory states that criminal behavior occurs when there is conflict
The documentary “The Central Park Five” shows five juveniles who were involved in a rape case in 1989. A white woman (Trisha Meili) was raped and who was leave for dead in the central park. Police officers arrested the five boys and they received sentences ranging from five to fifteen years. The Criminal Justice System did not have enough proof to blame these five blacks and Latino. However, later on Matias Reyes confessed that he was by himself and that he had assaulted and raped Meili that night. In this paper I would talk about question number four and question number nine.
The Central Park Five is the story of five teenagers, 14 to 16, four of whom were African American and the other of Hispanic origin, were wrongly accused and convicted of the sexual assault of a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. Prior to the assault, these teenagers were detained by fellow police officers in connection with the numerous amount of attacks in Central Park committed by a group of roughly around 25 teenagers. Although they were not engaging in the criminal activities of the group, they were still brought into the Central Park Precinct. On the same night of questioning, a woman was reported to have been assaulted and raped. After hours of aggressive interrogation, all five of them confessed to the attacks in the park
Both authors do their best to not exclude their work from a prospective white audience, as the inclusiveness of their messages opens the accessibility of their respective points. By hooking their white audiences, Anderson and Lamar have an opportunity to speak implicitly to their white audiences, which are arguably difficult for Anderson and Lamar to reach due to the aforementioned sense of guilt held by a typical white audience member. Anderson discusses the death of Trayvon Martin in depth, provides multiple hyperlinks focused specifically on this event, and states, “The traumatized teen became the scapegoat for the way that her inability to model respectability had failed the black community and, with it, any real chance at justice for Trayvon Martin’s death” (Anderson). In regards to Anderson’s purpose, her essay contains many examples of police brutality toward people of color from the past hundred years in order to bring attention to the corruption and violence within our legal systems. Likewise, Lamar provides an important soundbite from an outside source who counters his argument in “DNA:” “This is why I say that hip hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years” (Lamar 2:57-3:03). The soundbite was taken from Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera’s comments about
There is also a theory called social conflict studied by Richard Quinney and that theory was most commonly associated with Karl Marx. Social conflict theory is a Marxist-based social theory which argues individuals and groups interact on the basis of conflict rather than consensus. According to Kimberly Moffitt, she stated that: The key elements of this perspective are that society is structured in ways to benefit a few at the expense of the majority, and factors such as race, sex, class, and age are linked to social inequality (Moffitt). When it comes to the theorist who studies Social conflict theory, the theory is all about dominant group vs minority group relations. There is another American criminologist named Walter Reckless, however, he is known for his containment theory, Reckless Containment Theory suggests that individuals are pushed and pulled into crime. There is a video uploaded by Sarah Martinez where she gives details about Containment
Conflict theory argues that in society crime is a result of class conflict and law are created by those with power and resources to protect their power and interests. So as a result of capitalism and its free market principles it is ripe for class conflict causing crime. For example in Petrocelli, Piquero and Smith research on police traffic stops in Richmond found that demographics and socioeconomic did not play a role in police stops. This is troubling when trying to support conflict theory. However, they point to a “hurdle-effect” in the application of police power across Richmond. The first hurdle is the areas with high crime rates has more to with being stopped. Once you negate race as a fracture of the person being stopped it still found
There are many different complex’s ecological theories that were developed at the Chicago School of Human Ecology. There studies “of modern crime mapping can be directly attributed to the work of more modern ecological theorists, including those who have worked in the areas of defensible space, crime prevention through environmental design, situational crime prevention, routine activity theory and crime pattern theory. (Robinson, 2009)” To further discuss the theories, I will compare and contrast crime prevention through environmental design and situational crime prevention.
What is street crime? According to McDonald and Balkin (1983) define street crime as “personal contact criminal victimization (p.419)”. As we read this article it argues from different viewpoint that street justice can be explained from different theoretical perspectives. There are three theoretical perspectives that examines the role of justice as a means of informal social control and as a reactionary process to dynamics of social strain and subcultural demands. This theoretical analysis is then applied to concepts of justice, including retributive, distributive, restorative, and procedural. The derived street justice paradigm incorporates these various forms of justice as they are linked with cultural imperatives associated with street culture and