Summary Of Policing The Lives Of Black And Latino Boys By Victor Rios

In Punishment: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys, Victor Rios’ thesis is that “criminalization was a central, pervasive and ubiquitous phenomenon that impacted the everyday lives of the young people [he] studied in Oakland.” Rios studied the youth living in Oakland, California. He observed how they acted and how they were treated in society. His goal was to understand how youths in these networks of crime, criminalization, and punishment made sense of these practices and to observe their relations with authority figures. In Punished, Rios (2011) studies interconnected inquiries regarding the practice of criminalization using a sample of forty Black and Latino boys, between the ages of 14-18 years old. It was noted that all of the

In every facet of society, youths were under constant scrutiny and their daily routines and activities were exposed to high rates of subjectivity; thus, their behaviors were perceived as threatening or problematic, regardless if they truly were. School personnel, police officers, probation officers and other adults in the community had created an environment that made young people feel criminalized from a very young age, even when they had good intentions (82). “Criminalization is embedded in Oakland’s social order,” (37). However, despite keeping these individuals under their constant surveillance, the police often ignore those in need if they are part of the “criminalized” youth, or merely associated in any way with

Rios’ findings indicate a daily, institutionalized practice of “punitive social control” aimed at “regulating deviant behavior and maintaining social order” (21). For example, because of his intimidating appearance, Tyrell was stopped all the time and checked for guns and drugs beginning at the age of 12 (42). Eventually, Tyrell began to accept this stigmatization and chose to conform to the suspicions he was constantly accused of. In response to negative behaviors, punishment was utilized as a means of controlling their behavior. Punishment was described as the process by which individuals came to feel stigmatized, outcast, shamed, defeated, or hopeless as the result of negative interactions and sanctions imposed by individuals who represent institutions of social control. School personnel, police officers, probation officers and other adults in the community had created an environment that made young people feel criminalized from a very young age, even when they had good intentions