AMS 310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Juvenile Delinquency, Demography Of The United States, United States Senate Special Committee To Investigate Crime In Interstate Commerce
19 Nov 2016
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Department
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JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND MASS CULTURE
I. INTRODUCTION
a. Strong sense of anxiety and unease among parents, officials, psychological experts
i. Believed the teenagers of America were about to go on open rebellion against
elders
ii. Thought there was a crisis in 1950s of young people running amuck
iii. Fears of young people doing all sorts of terrible things
iv. Perception of a crisis, rather than an actual crisis
• Idea of a crisis of youth
II. THE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY CRISIS
a. BACKGROUND
i. Perception of a crisis, rather than an actual crisis
• Idea of a crisis of youth
ii. Young people in the work force
iii. Young people going to amusement parks and movies without their
parents
iv. America First Movement
• Worried about this bad behaviour
• Without husband there to look out for their children
v. Girls hanging around military bases
• Relationships with soldiers about to go to war
b. REASONS FOR THE CURRENT CRISIS
i. Dislocation
• People moving around the country
ii. Media sense of a crisis
• 1950s: Heroin came to Harlem
• A lot of press
• Charles Starkweather (19) and Carol Ann Fugate (14)
iii. Constant reporting creates constant illusion of actual events
iv. FILM: Badlands
v. Cold War
• Worries of escalation between soviets and the Americans
• Fears of the atomic bomb
• Ongoing anxieties
vi. American youth are culturally beginning to occupy spaces
• 1954: Brown v. Board of Education
• "all due deliberate speed"
• Segregation would not happen automatically
• Provides constitutional heft for racial integration
• Growing racial integration and diversity
• Also makes people anxious
vii. Era when teens are graduating but also working part-time
• With that money, they buy consumer goods
• Records
• Animal hats
• Participating in a culture that seems alien to adults
c. DIMENSIONS OF THE CURRENT CRISIS
i. Ways in which data can be used and misused
ii. Children's Borough created data about children during WWII
• Rates of crimes during WWII
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Document Summary
Introduction: strong sense of anxiety and unease among parents, officials, psychological experts. Believed the teenagers of america were about to go on open rebellion against elders. Thought there was a crisis in 1950s of young people running amuck. Fears of young people doing all sorts of terrible things. Perception of a crisis, rather than an actual crisis. Young people going to amusement parks and movies without their parents. America first movement: worried about this bad behaviour, without husband there to look out for their children, girls hanging around military bases, relationships with soldiers about to go to war, reasons for the current crisis, dislocation. People moving around the country: media sense of a crisis. A lot of press: charles starkweather (19) and carol ann fugate (14, constant reporting creates constant illusion of actual events, cold war. Film: badlands: worries of escalation between soviets and the americans, ongoing anxieties. American youth are culturally beginning to occupy spaces.
