US Prison Community Analysis

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The United States of America consists of 322,291,945 of the total world population of 7,290,547,907 (source: US Census). While consisting of less than five percent of the global population, the United States holds 25% of all prisoners on Earth. One in every 110 American adults is in prison and one in every 35 American adults is in some form of prison system program, including prison, jail, parole, and probation. Since 1978 the prison population has increased by 408%. As of 2014, there are 2,217,000 prisoners in the United States (source: ACLU). Of those, 60% of those imprisoned in federal or state prisons are black adult males while they only make up 30% of the U.S. population. Hispanics make up 15% of the inmate population (source: BJS [legal] …show more content…
In 1992, the city had its largest death toll in history due to poverty, drugs, and violence. Living in South Central Los Angeles is a hostile environment. Gang violence made the streets of Los Angeles the nation’s most dangerous urban jungle. Urban neighborhoods suffered from violence, drugs, mental and physical health issues and have no recourse to help themselves. Families live in gang territories due to their economic incapacities. They are forced to become involved with gangs due to daily interactions in their daily lives. For the youth, it is especially difficult due to the constant street influences in urban schools. Their involvement in one way or another with gangs is an obligation. Antonio had become victim of …show more content…
It is defined as a youth who commits violent crimes as a result of being raised without morals. Dilulio’s claim began a social fear of developing youth that is violent, especially after various sources of media had brought up the subject. The media that portrayed the superpredator theory was created to illicit culture shock. Retro Report released a documentary, The Superpredator Scare, which discuss that kids, especially emphasizing on colored children, are a danger to society and therefore the superpredators must be incarcerated as they are unable to rehabilitate from their violent behavior. This perpetuated the fear of minority youth, influencing culture, society, and legislation which allowed the increase of treatment of juveniles as adults for the purpose of sentencing and punishment (source: Equal Justice

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