Punished: Examining the Impact of Systemic Discrimination on Black and Latino Boys

Stephen Bridge: A surprising sociological study about teenage boys that would actually change lives and make cities safer – if anyone in charge would read this and pay attention. It has already made a difference in the way I see the teenage young men who come into my place of work and will change how I deal with them in the future. This book has already helped make changes in California law.

Rios was a teen gang member in Oakland, California on the edge of a criminal future, but was fortunate to be guided in a better direction. He got a PhD from Berkeley, but this is not HIS story. This is a rewritten version of his Ph.D. thesis, for which he spent three years following and studying 40 young men from Black and Latino families on the very hard streets of Oakland. He took great care to make this study about those young men, not about himself.

Rios’s thesis is that, in spite of intentions to the contrary, the police, teachers, probation officers, and even families of these young men actually *caused* these young men to be formally labeled as “criminals” from a young age, often as young as 9 years old. One of the main ways this was done was through the use of a city computer...

United States on Apr 30, 2020

Julie: Such an amazing book. Victor Rios brings to light the challenges that marginalized youth face in urban areas. Challenges.. that crush these kids sense of self worth and any hope of achieving a life outside of crime. His research follows the lives of 40 boys in the gang infested areas of Oakland, California. He exposes a debilitating punitive system that places unjust discriminating stigmas on these boys at a very young age. In most cases.. prior to them ever having any involvement with crime. In fact several had never actually committed crimes but were treated as if they had.. simply by association due to circumstances beyond their control or because of how they looked. Behaviors commonly seen as that of a normal adolescent are instead interpreted as criminal behavior resulting in harsh punishments and berating by authority figures involved in the daily lives of these kids. Thus beginning the process of breaking down the potential for these boys to ever succeed in having a "normal" life in society. A life where they have the same rights as others to go to school, vote or simply obtain a job. When everywhere they turn they are faced with condemnation even when they are attempting...

United States on Jan 01, 2015

Deborah F. Lustig: Based on three years of research with 40 Black and Latino boys in Oakland, California, Victor Rios provides just the right blend of the boys' personal stories, his own critical analysis (and perspective as a former gang member from this community), and social science theory. He illuminates the processes of punitive social control that are taking place nation-wide, but focuses on the specific political-economic context of Oakland. His central claim is that the "youth control complex" systematically criminalizes young people; police harassment, while pervasive, is only part of the youth control complex. Families, schools, businesses, community centers, and probation officers, even while they are trying to help young people, are integrated into a web of punishment. As I read, I was caught up in the stories of the young men and gained new insight into their daily lives and struggles. Rios doesn't romanticize their lives or excuse their bad behavior, but he does show how limited their options are and how their efforts to turn their lives around are often undermined by the same individuals and institutions that are telling them to change. He shows that seemingly self-destructive...

United States on Jul 29, 2011