Tag Archives: criminal youth

Graffiti Summit and the Broken Windows Theory

The embedded video relates to the class reading “Broken Windows” by Wilson and Kelling. A news anchor woman interviews the Corpus Christi Police Chief about a Graffiti Summit taking place in his town that night. The PC says that graffiti has been happening in bigger, higher profiler areas, churches, etc. He said past graffiti summits in their town have attracted elected officials, citizens, and other law enforcement agencies looking to collaborate with and help the CCPD prevent graffiti. The PC mentions that state representatives proposed new laws to combat graffiti, and that judges have issued harsher penalties for graffiti. The news anchor even comments that the community’s involvement is necessary for this undertaking to be successful. All of this reflects the article’s emphasis on collaboration being important to police maintaining order in a community:

“These rules were defined and enforced in collaboration with the “regulars” on the street…If someone violated them the regulars not only turned to [the police officer] for help but also ridiculed the violator” (Wilson & Kelling, 2).

When the PC said

“we’re not there yet, but we’re definitely taking a bite out of graffiti”

this reminded me of an officer’s description of running out gang members from neighborhoods in the article:

“We kick ass” (Wilson & Kelling, 8).

By pursuing these quality of life issues, not violent crimes, the police do really feel like they are accomplishing something and not wasting their resources.

When the news anchor comments that

“Graffiti leads to other crime.”

the PC says she is right. He says that it not only leads to other crimes such as petty theft, but that it’s an important quality of life issue. This harkens back to the “Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program” that was done in Newark in the 1970’s, which was

“designed to improve the quality of community life…” (Wilson & Kelling, 1).

The news anchor brings up criminology’s Broken Windows Theory. According to her, the theory says that when a community isn’t taken care of, then people stop caring about the community and commit more crime. The class article says this about the theory:

“Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken… one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing” (Wilson & Kelling, 2-3).

The PC affirms the anchor’s statement, and says the Broken Windows Theory was used to deter crime in NYC. The way he says this suggests to me that, because NYC used this measure, that it is a good idea to use it as a model for other police departments.

– Kelly Reznick

Posted in Assignment 5 | Tagged , , , | 88 Comments

Same Problem, Same Failed Solutions

In both historic and modern times, racial minorities have made up the underprivileged and disenfranchised classes in the Western World. The linked article highlights the similarities of the “solutions” to minority crime in both present and past times.

From our class reading “Typecasting” by Ewen & Ewen, we were introduced to the “pictorial average” or “ideal type” revealed by composite portraiture, a technology developed by Galton. He believed the “generic images” produced from layered pictures provided how an individual conformed to a certain “type” or group. An example of groups he composited were criminals. Thus, the individual portraits that made up the composites were believed to all conform to the criminal “type” in some way that linked all the criminals in the group together. This thinking paved the way to one of Galton’s other projects: eugenics. Eugenics promoted the racial superiority of Whites over non-whites, due to physical differences among the races such as bone structure, facial profiles, and brain size. Because eugenics was based in physical measurements, it was seen as valid and scientific. Galton used eugenics to identify Europeans as being superior racial stock, and to mark non-whites as inferior racial stock whose genes were a threat to White genes if racial mixing occurred. Eugenics has therefore been used to justify genocide and racial profiling of minorities in Western countries.

Eugenics was taken to the next level, out of the laboratory and applied to social and political problems faced by the privileged White class in European cities. 19th century urban populations were exploding, circumstances which demanded techniques to zero in on and identify criminals within the city’s masses. Photography and statistics emerged simultaneously to physically identify and categorize criminals. On the political side, the exclusivity of suffrage for White property owners was being eradicated and expanded to different classes, such as black men. Because this threatened the historical White power in the West, Bertillon and similar men opened the Society of Anthropology to study the differences between human races. Based on his research, Bertillon published “The Savage Races” in which he stated that the size of a black man’s brain would make his intelligence level to be that of an “idiot” compared to a white man. The book used physical differences to “prove” that the black race was genetically and  intellectually inferior to the White race.

Bertillon’s racial science was applied to urban life as it became a standard for Western police departments. Bertillonage was also used by criminologists and public administrators who saw cities as dangerous places to be subdued, rather than as places where economic and social crises needed to be solved. Therefore, the “management” and suppression of racial minorities was justified by racial science. But the hidden aim was really to maintain the status quo of White power in the West.

After the recent London riots, UK PM David Cameron is facing a similar problem and offering up a similar solution as to what happened in the past. Cameron’s reaction to recent uprisings of the marginalised and disenfranchised in England has been to declare “all-out war on gangs and gang culture” and has called for widening the use of US suppression models of policing.”

Instead of trying to fix the social and economic problems faced by rioting Londoners, Cameron is encouraging anti-gang policing which will, according to activists, scholars, and civil rights organizations, further increase racial profiling and immigrant deportation. The power of police to detain, search, and arrest someone bases on suspicion alone – or because they fit “a certain profile”, goes back to the first half of the 19th century with the passage of “sus law” (“suspected person”). Through the 20th century, the “profile” was often race-based and targeted non-white immigrant populations. In addition to economic devastation, the police use of racial profiling and “sus law” played a significant role in uprisings in black communities in England in the early 1980s. The reinvigoration of “sus law” has been championed by tough-on-crime politicians in the UK up to the present day. Similarly, the use of civil orders were championed by Tony Blair in 1990s to target “anti-social behaviour” including loitering, begging, and public drinking.”

Criminologists argue that the targeting of anti-social behavior adversely affects racial minorities, as well as the homeless, the poor, homosexuals, and other marginalized groups. What is most devastating is that with the arrests and punishments being increased due to gang affiliation, the criminal records of the arrested will further prevent these classes from social opportunities such as education and job advancement, continuing the cycle of the disenfranchised minority classes in Britain.

I chose this article to signify how racial profiling is still being used to single out and target minorites since its earliest developments as Galton’s composite portraitures. I also chose it to show how both past and present solutions have been to try to control the minorities through policing, rather than society as a whole coming together to help solve the inequalities these people face.

– Kelly Reznick

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201181872718908109.html

Posted in Assignment 1 | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

Curfew City

Philadelphia  is one of the latest cities world-wide to experience Flash Robs. In recent weeks, the city has witnessed several robberies and assaults. Similarly to flash mobs, people learned of and then participated in the mobs through social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and BBM.  In response to these attacks the mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, has ordered a city-wide curfew for “youths” under 21 years of age at 12am and those under 18 at 10 pm. In areas deemed to be more violent, the curfew has been set as early as 9pm.

While these preemptive actions may very well be justified, there has been quite some controversy regarding the comment Mayor Nutter made last Sunday at his church regarding the attacks: “you’ve damaged yourself, you’ve damaged another person, you’ve damaged your peers and, quite honestly, you’ve damaged your own race.” In this class, we have seen time and time again how race has been linked to crime. While Mayor Nutter is attempting to solve a problem, he is also creating one. By being a public official and perpetuating this idea that a particular race is behind an act of violence he is, in my opinion, perpetuating more crimes. By saying that black people are disgracing their race, he is creating a population of “suspects” that can be viewed with suspicion and even hostility by others. This label, as the article points out, takes away from the good things that that same target population is accomplishing, such as the award-winning Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement.  This is just an example of how stereotypes can perpetuate attitudes that encourage crime.

Posted in Assignment 3 | Tagged , , , , | 16 Comments

Football Behind Bars

This video is a trailer to the UK six part series that was aired on Sky1 channel in 2009. Ian Wright, soccer star, former Arsenal player and prominent TV host created a show. He himself, according to his interview for the show’s description on Sky 1 official website, spent 14 days in jail for driving without “tax or insurance”. During the show he was coaching young prisoners for the big final game. According to the same Sky 1 channel’s website, young prisoners had to go through a lot of training with strict discipline and those who didn’t work hard were excluded from the team. They were also participating in life coaching sessions, like anger management training, and were giving positive examples and encouragement to break out of criminal life cycle.  As show’s page claims: “As well as nurturing football talents, the series will also show how organisation, communication, trust and team work play a vital part in the rehabilitation and social integration of young offenders on their release.”

In the end of the show prison got funding for it’s own Football Academy. As for Ian Wright, he was palnning to attract government’s atention to the problem of young criminal’s rehabilitation and hoped to encourage creation of Football Academies in Juvenal prisons across the UK. How succesfull he was in that I don’t know. I will try to find out and will post it in comments to this post.

In Ian Wright’s model of rehabilitation through football we can see reflection of Merton’s theory of goals and institutionalized means of achievement.  Football Behind Bars prophecy popular concept that sport fosters discipline and improves one’s morals. It also works on giving young criminals new model for success- becoming successful athlete. Moreover, through Ian Wright’s personal example it shows institutionalized way for them to achieve goals of success and even wealth.

Posted in Assignment 2 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments