Children's Books: How discrimination is supported by liking crime to minority groups
INTRODUCTION Louis Wirth defined a minority as “any group of people who because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from the others in the society in which they live for differential and unequal treatment, and who there-fore regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination” (Wirth 1945:347). More modern definitions of a minority group describe them as numerically smaller racial or ethnic population who suffer discrimination and subordination (Feagin 1984). According to a recent census, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics are the prominent racial minority groups seen in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). The following research paper was designed to take a deeper look into the struggles of the aforementioned minorities, examining if children’s book support this discrimination by linking these groups with crime. To do this, I will first examine the present sociological literature on the correlation between race and crime followed by forming a hypothesis of what I believe will be shown in children’s novels. I will then choose three books that depict a criminal activity and read them in entirety. Last I will interpret the results, analyzing whether or not my findings support my proposed hypothesis.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Over the past few decades, the issue of the relationship between crime rate and race has been a trending topic within the sociological world. Social Scientists across the globe have presented numerous arguments that support their findings on this issue, producing a widely diverse group of ideas about the matter. Marvin Wolfgang asserts that it is a common occurrence for whites to associate particular crimes with blacks due to “somatic, physiological, or psychological traits peculiar to or more commonly found in that race” (Wolfgang, Cohen, and Sellin 1970:8). This raises the question of whether or not the collected data on race-crime statistics supports this negative stereotype.
One of
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Over the past few decades, the issue of the relationship between crime rate and race has been a trending topic within the sociological world. Social Scientists across the globe have presented numerous arguments that support their findings on this issue, producing a widely diverse group of ideas about the matter. Marvin Wolfgang asserts that it is a common occurrence for whites to associate particular crimes with blacks due to “somatic, physiological, or psychological traits peculiar to or more commonly found in that race” (Wolfgang, Cohen, and Sellin 1970:8). This raises the question of whether or not the collected data on race-crime statistics supports this negative stereotype.
One of