Stereotypes In The Film 'The Central Park Five'

The documentary film, The Central Park Five, demonstrate the result of people's tendencies to generalize individuals due to their racial group and their economic standing. In this case, five teenage boys were wilding in central park accompanying a group of other boys but the five boys were arrested and then later was suspected of another crime that also takes place at the park that night. They were accused rape of a woman jogging in the park and they gave false confessions to those claims. Come the time of the court hearing, these five teenage boys were already known to the public as a dangerous group. They were found guilty of a crime that they did not commit. Years later, pieces of evidence were found that proves the five teenage boys were

The media and the public do not know what motivates these boys to commit such act and it is easier to assume that they are “savages” as their characters than to find alternative reasons. Boys from their ethnic background have a reputation for crime in New York City. In this case, the people fail to find alternative reasons and they stick to their first perception of the situation. As a result, they gave a group of teenage boys punishment for crimes they did not commit. The population made what Myer and Twenge explained as a fundamental attribution error. It is our tendency to infer to people personality. when it is others behavior we look into their personalities but we look into the situation when it is our own behavior. In the Central park five case, people take account the boy’s personalities rather than the situation that

Myer explained that our “ we view our social worlds through the spectacles of our beliefs, attitudes and value” (65) In this case, people who were involved in this case was influenced by their racial or social bias in their perception and that lead to their final interpretation of the case despite the fact that there was lack of evidence. For example, during the trial, a serial rapist was caught but the professionals involved in the case did not think to consider it was the same person that committed the crime the boys were accused of. They already think that the five boys were guilty, therefore the possibility of another suspect is not in their interpretation. The reasons why they did not interpret the arrest of the serial rapist as a possibility is because it does not benefit them to do so. Investigators, lawyers, and reporters had made the case their career and if they were wrong it would discredit