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In the United States, the conversation about teen incarceration has moved from one extreme to another. For centuries, execution of juvenile offenders was legal. By the twenty-first century, the US Supreme Court had moved closer to banning all executions of minors, regardless of the severity of the crime. Since the 1990s, the US juvenile justice system has moved away from harsh punishment and toward alternative evidence-based models that include education,...
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This poignant program deftly captures the hope and heartbreak of three men struggling to put drug addiction behind them and regain the lost trust of their loved ones. Completion of a closely monitored court-ordered drug treatment plan is their ticket back to life on the outside, and they are staking their futures on it.but only two succeed. Interviews with the recovering addicts and their family members movingly illustrate the damaging repercussions...
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This program introduces the concept of "green crime," using conditions in Bhopal to define primary and secondary green crime. A range of sociologists explain the idea of transgressive criminology and the wider concept of harm, with a look at how Marxism and social theorist Ulrich Beck's concept of the "risk society" can be applied to problems such as the destruction of the rain forest and climate change. The video also notes how increased consumerism...
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How does America's juvenile justice system work? In what ways has it failed? And what would it take to improve it so that it routinely operates in the best interests of offenders, their victims, and society as a whole? These are not simple questions, as this Fred Friendly Seminar points out - and they become all the more complex when moderator Charles Ogletree, of Harvard Law School, casts 13 experts as figures in a hypothetical scenario involving...
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A few centuries ago, state-sanctioned killing was thought of mainly as a control mechanism, a deterrent to crime. Thus, a person could be hanged not just for murder but for minor offences such as petty theft. But with the emergence of the police force as a civic institution, some began to view capital punishment as the sordid appeasement of our communal thirst for vengeance, and today it is a continual source of debate. This program explores the issue...
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This multi-section program sheds light on crime and deviance from a number of sociological angles to illuminate aspects of their expression, function, and control within society. Topics include the origins and implications of moral panics and how such panics manifest today; the functions of crime and deviance within the social order, with reference to the views of Emile Durkheim, considered by many to be the father of sociology; research into the...
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Beset with the catchphrase "racial profiling," police in many American cities have responded with their own terminology: "selective disengagement," "tactical detachment," and the code NC/NC-"no contact, no complaints." In this program, ABC News anchor Ted Koppel reports on how police are moving from active to passive law enforcement in the wake of controversy, resulting in a spike of violent crimes. His discussion panel includes Keith Fangman, president...
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Arrested for allegedly lewd conduct in a park, a man commits suicide after his name and photo are published in the newspaper. The Chippendales, a burlesque entertainment troupe, is taken to jail when some members are charged with having made suggestive pelvic movements during a show. A store that sells sex toys is now barred from offering its merchandise unless customers sign a waiver that they are buying items for medical reasons. Are these stories...
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What is the cost to society for making certain personal choices-those considered by many to be immoral or ill-advised-a crime? And how is the concept of individual liberty affected when the force of public censure is replaced by the force of law? In this program, ABC News anchor John Stossel studies this extremely complex and volatile subject, searching for mid-ground between the left and the right. High-level policy makers, such as the president...
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When Chloe gets a job working with children struggling in class, 8-year-old Mario and Nini stand out. She encourages them to make a documentary, and they choose gang culture as a theme. But as the bonds between them grow, the emotional stakes get higher, and the boys become involved in a life of crime. "If you're not there to talk to, Mario says to Chloe, "it's all crammed inside me. All the hate. And I always try to show love. But love will get you...
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Every year, 20 million violent crimes are committed in America. This program looks at some of the ways in which people are trying to stop the cycle of crime and violence: working with inmates and ex-offenders; citizens and police working together to get prostitutes, drug dealers, and gang activities off the streets. Citizens on Patrol works in tandem with the Fort Worth, TX, police department; Gainesville, FL, has an innovative program to help retrain...
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For many criminologists, you can't explain crime just by looking at the characteristics offenders, you also have to consider the role social, cultural & environmental influences. This film brilliantly captures the essence of three of the major social theories of crime and looks at their continuing relevance to the study and control of crime in contemporary societies. Strain Theory and the American Dream looks at application of Merton's theory to consumer...
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Marshall Allen is just one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who leave state or federal prisons and return to their home communities each year. He is typical of the majority of convicts in the U.S. in that he served time on a drug charge-in his case, possession of crack cocaine. He is also not unusual in the failure of his first attempt to make it on the outside. But a second term behind bars has hardened his resolve to succeed. This ABC News...
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The forms of punishment a society chooses, and what exactly it deems a crime, tell a great deal about that society's values. How is justice pursued and punishment meted out? This program looks at the history of punishment, beginning with early compensatory forms of justice, Hammurabi's Code, and the Law of Moses. Socrates' execution and Roman and medieval forms of justice are analyzed in a historical context, underscoring the fact that punishment...
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Prison life is hard-but for most ex-convicts, life on the outside is tough, too. This video follows paroled prisoners as they re-enter civilian life and face challenges both large and small. Upon release from jail, the lives of these young men are suddenly filled with critical decisions. Some are dreaded, such as the split-second choice of whether or not to engage in violence-the wrong choice will put them back behind bars. Other dilemmas are unexpected,...
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This program, filmed at the Central Correctional Institution in South Carolina, examines the failure of current U.S. correctional methods, and the expense of that failure in human terms. Interviews with inmates and staff capture emotions ranging from rage to hopelessness, as they discuss the racism and violence indigenous to prison life. The overall picture is that a growing underclass is disproportionately punished under our current criminal justice...
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Obscenities, screaming matches, fistfights, shootings-these have become almost standard forms of public expression. Why? Can society's violent downward spiral be reversed? This program explores the emotional causes and social dangers of short fuses, linking the pressures of a hard-driving, high-tech world to the prevalence of an easily threatened, easily angered point of view. Breaking its analysis into three parts, the program examines road rage,...
20) The State
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Winston Churchill said that democracy is "the worst system devised by the wit of man, except for all the others. Although the state has taken many forms throughout history, some consider it not a protector of its citizens and their freedoms, but a fetter on their liberty. This program provides a historical overview of the myriad forms of government that have existed and their organizing principles, whether it is a Greek city state such as Athens that...