Disillusioned, shocked, and at times, hopeful, the audience is left with the impression of not a moving documentary, but one that pushes them to move. Ava DuVernay starts her documentary, 13th, by highlighting the startling statistic that 25% of the world’s imprisoned population resides in the United States, despite having only 5% of the world’s total population. The reason behind this mass incarceration originates from the film’s name, the 13th Amendment, which provided a loophole for slavery in the clause “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted” (U.S. Const. amend. XIII.). This revealing statement, reiterated multiple times throughout the film, introduces the viewer to the argument that modern day slavery exists legally through the prison system.
The documentary explores the economic drive to exploiting this clause, starting from post-Civil War racist legislation as a way to control the black populace. Southern states
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Furthermore, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) drafted legislation that favored the corporations working with them, including businesses within the prison-industrial complex. This privatization of prison services, from phone calls to medical services, garnered huge profits with long-term contracts with the government and exuberant prices at the expense of prisoners’ loved ones, but this huge margin of profit comes from subpar treatment of prisoners (Markowitz, 2017). This parallel to slavery, profiting of another human’s freedom, proves even more provocative when the audience finds out that prisoners work for major corporations for mere cents an hour, leaving a bitter taste in viewers even after the
This film, directed by former gang- member Cle Sloan, shows how racism between whites and blacks during the civil rights movement played a significant role in the formation of many Los Angeles gangs that we would see today. T...
Michelle Alexander in her book "The New Jim Crow" argues that Mass Incarceration is similar to Jim Crow; Alexander believes that caste systems such as Jim Crow and slavery are similar to the existing system of mass incarceration. In addition, Alexander accuses the U.S. criminal justice system, implying their laws undividedly target African Americans through the War on Drugs and racial limitation. In comparing mass incarceration with Jim Crow, Alexander points to compelling parallels regarding political disenfranchisement, legalized discrimination, and symbolic production of a race. Alexander, moreover, effectively offers a rebuttal to the counterargument that the New Jim Crow does not carry the same level of racial hostility as the Old Jim
This book review covers Policing Gangs in America by Charles Katz and Vincent Webb. Charles Katz has a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, while Vincent Webb has a Ph.D. in Sociology, making both qualified to conduct and discuss research on gangs. Research for Policing Gangs in America was gathered in four cities across the American Southwest; Inglewood, California, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona. This review will summarize and discuss the main points of each chapter, then cover the relationship between the literature and class discussions in Introduction to Policing and finally it will note the strengths and weaknesses of book.
Over the past 60 years there has been a recent phenomenon in the development and rise of gangs and gang violence. This is exceptionally apparent in South Central Los Angeles where the Bloods and the Crips have taken control of the social structure and created a new type of counter culture. Poverty in this area is an enormous problem caused by a shear lack of jobs; but just because there is a lack of jobs doesn’t mean that there will be a lack of bills to pay, so sometimes selling drugs in order to keep a roof over your head seems like the most logical option. Crime often times flourishes in these regions because the inconvenient truth is; crime pays. Senator Tom Hayden stated “It’s been defined as a crime problem and a gang problem but it’s really an issue of no work and dysfunctional schools.” this statement is in fact true, but with an exception it is a more broad issue than just involving school, and lack of jobs but goes beyond into social structure as a whole and more specifically the judicial system, this can all be supported by three sociologists Chambliss, Anderson, and Durkheim.
The movie 13th mainly discusses the problem of racism and mass incarceration after the civil war. Specifically, it is covered in the documentary that many poor black people were put in jail due to minor misbehaviors and were forced to work for the country under convict leasing. Moreover, black people were treated unfairly and sometimes were tortured unlawfully in the society. The “War on drugs” declared by conservative Republicans were biased against black community and resulted in a significant increase in incarceration in the late 20th. In addition, a lot of companies such as Walmart cooperated with States in terms of private prison constructions and gained a huge amount of profits as a result.
CNN presents the documentary, Homicide in Hollenbeck, spotlighting gang activity in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollenbeck. This documentary explores the subculture of gangs existing within Hollenbeck from a several perspectives. The people documented include a mother who lost both of her sons to gang violence, a priest that has tried to help rehabilitate gang members, a police officer that has worked in Hollenbeck for five years in the gang unit, and a current gang member. For a conclusion, Homicide in Hollenbeck focuses on a juvenile exposed to gang life on the cusp of decided where they want their life to lead; gangs or freedom. Problems attributed to the high rate of gang activity and number of gangs in Hollenbeck are the high poverty rate, low employment rate, and broken families that make up the majority of Hollenbeck. The crime most discussed, as per the title of the documentary, is homicide The number of gang related homicides has risen even though the criminal behavior of gangs has ultimately decreased in the neighborhood. In order to fight the overwhelming gang presence, the police believe in increasing the amount of gun power on the streets and number of jailed gang members. The priest who runs Homeboy Industries stated that he feels most gang members are just young men who can’t get out of the gang life. With more funds and opportunities, he thinks the problem could be decreased. In the end, the documentary mentions that the FBI has formed a gang center where local law enforcement agencies can share information to gain more knowledge and to better fight the presence of gangs.
Through the thirteenth amendment emancipation was born. Through the language of the constitution— “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime”, the amendment was able to make loopholes for certain social agendas that led to the opposite of what the amendment intended to do. It has been able to metaphorically enslave blacks by creating the ability to have the stereotype of black criminality. Black criminality is the myth that has played throughout our society, that depicts black people as criminals, especially black men. This stereotype has caused people to fear away from black people due to the prejudices that the stigmatization of being black holds. Once the thirteenth amendment abolished slavery, Jim Crow Laws appeared within our society, which orchestrated the myth of Blacks being criminals. This stigmatization of a whole race was created through an anomaly of the thirteenth amendment. Something that seems to start the upward battle of a race of people who had been held back because of the laws of slavery, have now found a new struggle to endure, called black criminality, through the unconscientious decision of the wording of the thirteenth amendment that was made to grant
Most black Americans are under the control of the criminal justice today whether in parole or probation or whether in jail or prison. Accomplishments of the civil rights association have been challenged by mass incarceration of the African Americans in fighting drugs in the country. Although the Jim Crow laws are not so common, many African Americans are still arrested for very minor crimes. They remain disfranchised and marginalized and trapped by criminal justice that has named them felons and refuted them their rights to be free of lawful employment and discrimination and also education and other public benefits that other citizens enjoy. There is exists discernment in voting rights, employment, education and housing when it comes to privileges. In the, ‘the new Jim crow’ mass incarceration has been described to serve the same function as the post civil war Jim crow laws and pre civil war slavery. (Michelle 16) This essay would defend Michelle Alexander’s argument that mass incarcerations represent the ‘new Jim crow.’
The Birth of a Nation (1915) is one of the most controversial movies ever made in Hollywood, some people even consider it the most controversial movie in the long history of Hollywood. Birth of a Nation focuses on the Stoneman family and their friendship with the Cameron’s, which is put into question due to the Civil War, and both families being on different sides. The whole dysfunction between the families is carried out through important political events such as: Lincoln’s assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Kan. D.W. Griffith is the director of the movie, and him being born into a confederate family in the South, the movie portrays the South as noble and righteous men, who are fighting against the evil Yankees from the North, who have black union soldiers among them, whom overtake the town of Piedmont, which leads the KKK to take action and according to the movie become the savior of white During this essay, I will focus on the themes of racial inequality, racism, and the archetypical portrayal of black people in the movie, which are significant, especially during the era when the film was released. Black face in Hollywood was very common, especially during the time the film Birth of a Nation was released.
Gang involvement has been quite higher than past years. The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey estimates that about 32.4 percent of all cities, suburban areas, towns, and rural counties had a gang problem (Egley et al., 2010). This represented a 15 percent increase from the year 2002. The total number of gangs has also increased by 28 percent and total gang members have increased by 6 percent (Egley et al., 2010). This shows how relevant gang related activity is in today’s society. More locations are beginning to experience gang activity for the first time. Gang crime has also been on the rise in the past...
Tobin, Kimberly. Gangs: An Individual and Group Perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
Peterson, R, Krivo, L, & Hagan, J. (2006). The many colors of crime. NY: New York University Press.
New Century Foundation. (2005). The Color of Crime: Race, Crime and Justice in America. Retrieved from http://www.colorofcrime.com/colorofcrime2005.pdf
13th to bring the issue of systematic racism and the unfair treatment of prisoners. The trailer argues that there is a “loophole” within the thirteenth amendment that allows for slavery to exist, despite its supposed abolishment. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”. The loophole within the exception of “punishment for crime” deems the enslavement of prisoners lawful. By creating a theoretical toolbox with Weberian and Durkhemian concepts, the existence of exploitation can be explained within an American context. Weber’s concepts describe the material world as it exists in
Hallswort, S. And Young, T. (2004) Getting Real About Gang. Criminal Justice Matters [online]. 55. (1), pp 12-13 [Accessed 10 December 2013]