Texas Teen Affluenza Case Analysis

Sociology 461 Criminal Justice Systems Edward M. Stern No Heroes, No Villains; by Steven Phillips In the book No Heroes, No Villains the author Steve Phillips describes a story of a single dramatic trial of murder it offers a thoughtful and balanced presentation of the problems besetting our criminal courts, lays bare the mechanics of justice, and explains in graphic detail just what is wrong and right about our criminal justice system.

One of the stories that stuck out to me the most was the story about Duc. Duc was arrested for driving a car from which a gun was shot. Although no one was injured, Duc received a sentence of 35 years to life. What was most surprising to me about Duc’s case was that he was not a member of a gang, nor did he have any criminal record. In fact, he was a good kid that was just placed in an unfortunate situation. In Duc’s defense, the gun shots just came from the car that he was driving: he was not necessarily the one who fired the gun. However, the system treated him as if he was the one who shot the gun because it shifts the attention

The case sends the message that “families that have money, you can drink and drive . This is a very , very dangerous thing we're telling our children.” This proves that “society is often Unequal” because poor people are treated differently than the rich people.

This Ted Talk about how the criminal condemnation of most young adults are based on unfair circumstances. These circumstances being based upon race and background. Alice Goffman throughout the Ted Talk tells stories that persuade the audience through pathos to be tentative of injustices based on race. Goffman wants the audience to understand how these injustices are created and at then end gives some solutions. This Ted Talk will be helpful in showing some injustices and also showing some logos of criminal cases based on race. The Ted Talk will also be helpful in comparing the incarceration probability to the different

I believe the single biggest challenge facing Texas teachers is poverty. Recent statistic from The Southern Education Foundation indicate 60% of student in Texas public schools live in poverty. Studies published by The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, have found that socioeconomic status, not race, ethnicity, national origin, location of a school is the best predictor of whether a person will receive a college education.

In this video Marc Mauer explains the racial disparities in the criminal justice system which are overlooked and continues silently in the criminal justice system. Mauer explains how two teenage boys arrested for shoplifting in different social classes receives different treatment from the criminal justice system. The first teenager has a two parents that are able to send their son to get help. They are able to send him to a social worker. They inform the prosecutor that their son is doing better. The prosecutor decided to drop the charges against the teen because he was able to seek help for his criminal behavior. It is also implied this teenager is white financial stable and not a danger to the community. He is just an average teen who fell into the wrong crowd. Therefore, he has no criminal record and is able to apply for jobs without scrutiny for being arrested as a teen. This teen would also be viewed as a youth that is having environmental problems and would get social dispute resolutions, interventions for acting out in

Annette Lareau, author of Unequal Childhoods Class, Race, and Family Life, revealed her research findings in this enlightening text featuring twelve socially, economically, and culturally diverse families having a child nine to ten years of age respectively in their nuclear family unit. These families were garnered from the author’s coinciding study comprised of eighty-eight children. Lareau, along with her research assistants, visited each family approximately twenty times. Visits included time spent within the home, as well as family events, school functions, doctor’s visits, structured activities, shopping trips, and church services. Wide-ranging contexts allowed researchers a unique opportunity to observe and record a multiplicity of interactions within each family unit.

In the book Just Mercy: A story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, there are several topics discussed regarding the American Justice system. One of those many topics discussed is regarding how a person’s race, social status and income, may influence the outcome of a court trail. In present day America, many years after the era of Jim crow and segregation the Justice system still seems to be more lenient towards white Americans, especially those with high income and a good standing in society. The American justice system has become unjust in the trials deemed to be fair, due to an evident prejudice against minorities, their social status and whether or not they receive a well off or poor income.

“The fact that our poverty rate is increasing is something that I think is very alarming to those of us who care very much about the health and welfare of children and see the investment in children as really the future of Texas,” said Beth Quill, executive director of Children’s Defense Fund Texas. This goes to show basically a full quarter of Texas children are poor based on these statistics. Poverty is very important because these children are the future of this world. Children who are born into poverty are more likely to live in poverty and less likely to have consistent employments as adults. To prevent this from happening there are 3 solutions that I have done extensive research on to make this happen. Therefore these solutions consist of raising the minimum wage, expanding Medicaid and reforming the way the criminal justice system works.

In America, the poor and uneducated a disproportionally represented in the eyes of the law. We are supposed to be a country that builds each other up, and stops at nothing until each person succeeds. Whether that be by race, gender, sexuality, or age. Unfortunately, that is not the case for most Americans, especially those who are poor and uneducated. While the law plays a bigger role in their lives, more than the average middle class American, poor and uneducated people are not properly represented by the law. A great example of the misrepresentation is in the case of the Buffalo Creek Disaster vs the Pittston and Buffalo Coal Company. In this paper, I will discuss, the history of judge’s decision in cases where minorities and lower class were involved, the history of the wage income and education rate in West Virginia, and how law affects lower class communities. It is my opinion that if West Virginia were a community of high class persons, the treatment received from the Piston company and the Buffalo Coal company would have been different.

African-Americans are more likely than others to have social histories that include poverty, exposure to neighborhood violence, and exposure to crime-prone role models. For example, African-American children with no prior admissions to the juvenile justice system were six times more likely to be incarcerated in a public facility than white children with the same background that were charged with the same offense. A major study sponsored by the Department of Justice in the early 1980s noted that juvenile justice system processing appears to be counterproductive, placing minority children at a disproportionately greater risk of subsequent incarceration (Deadly Statistics: A Survey of Crime and Punishment, 2000). This writer?s grandmother retired after more than thirty years as a welfare social worker for Los Angeles County. She has stated on more than occasion that the government is the main reason that most black men are in jail awaiting the death penalty today. In the sixties and early seventies, she says that women on welfare were not allowed to have men in the home, even the father of the children. These fatherless generations of men seem more prone to crime,

There are many instances where minorities are not given the chance to prosper in American society. The same system that promises all men equal opportunity has turned its back in the face of minorities. We plan to examine some segments of this system, namely the media and the criminal justice system, exposing injustices burdening minorities in America.

Almost every member of the black community in Maycomb County is admirable in their personalities and innocent in their nature, and this generalisation makes the crimes against the black community all the worse. Tom Robinson, a man discriminated and accused of a crime that he didn’t commit has come forth to the justice system. The color of his skin determines everything from his background too if he’s guilty or not. A black man’s life is unable to prove innocence because of his race. Poverty has affected many people back in the 1960’s but, if a black man or women were to experience this they would be put on the white

In recent years, there have been many cases of the rich “getting away with murder.” One example that I absolutely love is, Ethan Couch.All at the age of 16, Ethan Couch was driving under the influence of stolen beer cases. When he killed 4 people and injured 9 people all together. Couch was then indicted with 4 charges of intoxicated manslaughter, but the judge only gave him 10 years of probation. Since it was argued that he had “affluenza.” Affluenza’s dictionary definition is “a psychological malaise supposedly affecting wealthy young people, symptoms of which include a lack of motivation, feelings of guilt, and a sense of isolation.” This basically gave him a get out jail free card, since his parents were too rich to teach him to be a

Throughout American history, no matter what time period, humans have been categorized, discriminated against, and treated according to their class, financial status, and race. Many concrete and obvious examples of this have appeared throughout the years, ranging from the Salem witch trials in the late 1600’s, all the way to the recent civil rights movements in the 1950’s and 60’s. Social history uses personal stories to show how class/status and race played a part in the way people were treated in America.