Juvenile Delinquency & Film: From "Boyz N the Hood" (1991) to "The Wire" (2008)

Catalog description

How have American films portrayed juvenile crime, drug use, gang violence, and law enforcement responses (especially police and prisons) to juvenile crime and violence? How have American films portrayed individual juvenile delinquents, their families, and the communities in which they live? Do films vividly capture or distort the "realities" of juvenile crime and the operations of law enforcement? This course uses feature films from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, as well as social science 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.