Analysis Of The Central Park Five

“It was if there was a social moat that divided these two New Yorks.” This quote from the movie The Central Park Five, explains the divide between the poor part of New York, such as Harlem, and the upper class areas. This divide was caused by an economic crisis that changed the social dynamics of the city. This change allowed for consequences such as the injustice of the Central Park Five and the causes of this injustice can be explained by three different theoretical perspectives: the Structural Functionalist Perspective, the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective, and the Conflict Perspective. According to the lecture and Adler & Adler, the Structural Functionalist perspective is the theory that institutional breakdown can result in the increase …show more content…

Through the same process, tension generated by the desire to win in a poker game is relieved by successfully dealing one 's self four aces, or when the cult of success has truly flowered, by sagaciously shuffling the cards in a game of solitaire. The faint twinge of uneasiness in the last instance and the surreptitious nature of public delicts indicate clearly that the institutional rules of the game are known to those who evade them. But cultural (or idiosyncratic) exaggeration of the success-goal leads men to withdraw emotional support from the …show more content…

The Conflict Perspective, in itself, focuses on the ruling class and the ruled class. In the perspective, the ruling class defines what is deviant based on how it helps them. In this case, the ruling class would be defined as upper-class and white. The ruled class would be defined as lower-class and black. This is illustrated through the emphasis placed on the impact of the differences between the woman who was raped and the young men who were accused of raping her. The woman who was raped was a white and wealthy business woman who worked as an investment banker on Wall Street. The young men who raped her were lower class, black, and from Harlem. Due to these extreme differences, there was immense media attention. The media was often one sided and viewed the young men as criminals and animals in order to make them social pariahs. The media and upper-class wanted to make an example of them to reinforce the laws and separate the two groups even further. Also, the court system had the woman give a testimony despite the fact that she could not remember anything that happened that night. The documentary stated that her testimony was simply used to “pack an emotional punch,” and make the young men look even more inhuman. Finally, when the men were exonerated, the media barely covered it. The news was no longer about showing the lower-class where they belonged. Anything