Summary Of Punished By Dr. Victor M. Rios

In his novel Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys, Dr. Victor M. Rios aims to demonstrate the catastrophe of criminalization, the flops of using cruel and humiliating punishments that attempt to “‘correct’ and ‘manage’ marginalized youths” (p. 23), and to display the consequences that these practices will have on the paths that teenagers take. He does this by documenting parts of his experience in observing forty boys of Black and/or Latino who are “heavily affected by criminal justice policies and practice” (p. 8). Then, he clarifies how these flaws impacted the boys in these situations. The aim of this essay is to summarize Dr. Rios’ observations and analyze and critique the primary arguments made in the book.
For his research,

Criminal justice institutions in Oakland challenge masculinity as a means of rehabilitation. For instance, from a boy’s perspective, being a man involves standing up to peers who challenge self-confidence. This results in law breaking and violent fights, which can create opportunities for arrests. On the other hand, probation officers believe that being a man involves obtaining an education to support your family. However, by living in a poor neighborhood where punitive social control is ratified, the boys can hardly find employment. Thus, it generates hypermasculinity, which “often influenced the young men to perpetrate defiance, crime, and violence, sanctioning police to brutalize or arrest them” (p. 138). To reiterate, probation officers tell the boys to “get a job, do well in school and stay out of trouble” (p. 139). But the odds of succeeding are low, because “most avenues of legitimate success were out of reach” (p.

The first one involves building an improved youth control complex. After all, if it were not for the resources he encountered as a youth, Rios would not obtain a spectacular education. His experience in Oakland taught him that “if we provide the right resources to catapult themselves out of marginalization, young people will deliver” (p. 162). If the youth control complex gets a redesign, it needs to give people an opportunity to learn from their mistakes. The second approach deals with managing dignity and freedom “for all young people” (p. 163). To do this, lawmakers must find a way to work with populations affected by social control, even if it means allowing social movements to influence policies. The final approach involves using the “One Youngster at a Time” approach (p. 164). According to Rios, “the key is to provide all marginalized youths with good props, good lighting, and a supportive audience. In this way, acts of resistance, resilience, and reform, which go hand in hand, can become the basis for helping young people transform their lives” (p. 166). If Oakland citizens can discover ways to “respect and embrace the work that young people do for dignity and freedom” (p. 164), not only would they change how the criminal justice system functions, but also how lives are