Juvenile Delinquency & Film: From Soul of Youth (1920) to West Side Story (1961)

Catalog description

How have American films portrayed juvenile delinquency and the juvenile justice system? What does filmmakers' portrayal of juvenile delinquency tell us about American culture and society? Do films vividly capture or badly distort the "realities" of crime and the operations of the justice system? This course uses feature films (to be viewed in advance of class) from the 1920s to the early 1960s, as well as sociological, psychological, and historical readings, to explore these issues. The course is run as a colloquium, with students playing central leadership roles in launching and guiding class discussions. The course will have a take-home midterm exam (essay), a final exam (essay), and a few short, written assignments linked to students' required oral presentations in class.