Running head: SOCIOLOGY OF A CASE IN THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE Sociology of a Case in the Central Park Five Markeisha Stallion Cal State University, Los Angeles March 5th, 2018 1 2 SOCIOLOGY OF A CASE IN THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE Sociology of a Case in the Central Park Five Different factors infiltrate and influence legal systems and the outcomes of cases. The Black theory clarifies that different dependent and independent variables influence how the legal system plays out: variations in law, social factors and characteristics of the participants. These variables are evident in The Central Park Five, a documentary that highlights and examines the legal process and outcome of a high-profile crime involving five black and Latino teens convicted of raping a Caucasian White woman in New York’s Central Park. The case attracted immense media publicity and the five teenagers were already guilty to many Americans even before the prosecution. The Central Park Five case was heard and tried without any sufficient incriminating evidence, against five minority ethnic group teenagers, making it a civil rights case marred by existent legal system social dimensions. The five central park convicts were arrested amidst other teenagers that were reportedly assaulting people in and around Central Park in 1989. Unfortunate for the five, the police discovered a white woman jogger, assaulted, raped and left for dead along the same vicinity that the teens had been going wild. Investigations conducted narrowed the suspects to six teenagers but one, a white, was left out of the prosecution and later conviction of the five (Burns & Burns, 2012). The five were forced into recorded video confessions that were aired out to the public in the course of the investigations, their trial and judgment. Despite the fact that the confessions aroused a lot of questions that definitely put their authenticity in doubt, and, the semen sample found on the lady did not match any of the teenager’s DNA, the jury still found them guilty of rape among other crimes committed on that fateful day. 3 SOCIOLOGY OF A CASE IN THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE Baumgartner identifies several variables from the Black theory that influence how cases play out: stratification, morphology, culture, organization (1999). These, are the social environment dimensions that always predict and explain legal variations in cases. To most people who viewed the movie or studied The Central Park Five case after the conviction, it is clear to them that the five were unfairly charged. Casting aside the confessions, which evidently were coerced, the teenager’s storyline describing the events of the crime do not match with the actual findings and the evidence from the victim (Burns & Burns, 2012). What remains unclear is how the turns and twists of the events that led them to be convicted and a guilty verdict passed, played. However, when one views and analyzes The Central Park Five case taking into considerations the social environment dimensions that Black (1983) proposes, the pieces start to fall in line. The first variable that Baumgartner discusses in her analysis of the social organization of law is social stratification. This denotes the class and social status inequality that may be present in a case between the defendant(s) and the plaintiff(s). Baumgartner explains that ‘income, wealth and occupation’ along with ‘group affiliations’ measure the social status of an individual in today’s America (1999). High income earners, the wealthy, those with significant jobs, men, adults and whites have a status advantage over low income earners, the poor, the jobless or insignificant job holders, women, children and Blacks in the outcomes of cases. Baumgartner clarifies that unlike is common belief, the social status of the victim is what really determines the outcomes of a case and not that of the defendant. In cases where the victim has a high social status, the case is most likely to favor them and vice versa. Thus, based on the social stratification theory, the five teenagers in the high-profile crime case in the United States were at a loss. Despite the fact that the five were from well able 4 SOCIOLOGY OF A CASE IN THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE families in the Black and Latino neighborhoods, they faced a social status disadvantage along racial lines, gender and age. The five were all children aged below seventeen years with insignificant understanding of how the judicial system worked. As such, they were interrogated for long hours without the presence of their lawyer’s and coerced into forced confessions incriminating each other (Burns & Burns, 2012). Secondly, the case was tried at a time when Americans were highly divided against racial lines. The fact that the woman assaulted and raped was a white only served to make matters worse on their end. With the superiority of the Whites coupled with the social status advantage that the lady had, there was no way that the five could walk out of police custody without being convicted. Social morphology which explains the degree of significance of individuals or the kind and level of their relationship also has significant influence on the legal variation of the case. Ones degree of significance is measured by their social involvement, integration and social class while the relationship is dependent on whether the parties are strangers, acquaintances, friends or intimate partners (Baumgartner, 1999). Thus, the society treats offenses against socially significant persons seriously than it does those against isolates and law is more aggressive where the parties in a case are strangers. Therefore, the defendants in The Central Park Five had no way to win against their victim, a white woman (Burns & Burns, 2012). This was treated as a case between strangers, an integrated white individual and five marginalized teenagers from the Black and Latino communities. Therefore, it was a serious case that required aggressive measures to be taken as seen by the public views in the media, the police interrogations and later ruling. Culture also played a significant role in uniting individuals against members of the dissimilar culture, and its role in law and the outcome in the legal case that ensued is equally 5 SOCIOLOGY OF A CASE IN THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE significant. Culture denotes groups of individuals who share similar religious and social beliefs, values and interests. The cultural diverseness or lack thereof and the cultural dominance or minority between parties to a case determined how the outcome. Baumgartner explains that, offenses between two culturally diverse individuals and where one culture dominated over the other were likely to be taken much seriously and attract stringent penal codes (1999). Again, culture played a role in influencing the outcome in the conviction of the five teenagers charged with raping a white woman. The woman was a Caucasian white, the most dominant culture in the United States while the defendants belonged to the minority cultures of African Americans and Latinos (Burns & Burns, 2012). This explains why the media vehemently condemned the defendants making them guilty in the public eyes before even they were brought to trial. The individuals and organizations who took personal interest in the 1989 case had a tremendous influence on the outcome. The case highly transformed from one between individuals to one between social systems and organizations in the country. To a wild extent, the case was used by politicians as a campaign strategy, making it a political and civil case. Organization, according to Baumgartner (1999) was determined by the degree to which groups of persons worked cooperatively ‘in support of common goals.’ The organizations observed in the case were those of Whites against the Blacks and Latinos (Burns & Burns, 2012). Media houses, newspapers, magazines and tabloids in the US all seemed to form one organization in support of the victim. And unfortunate enough for the Blacks, the entire judicial and police system were and is dominated by the Whites. The most dominant organization in size and influence could saw to it that the case was treated with seriousness and that the defendants were harshly condemned and convicted. 6 SOCIOLOGY OF A CASE IN THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE The social dimensions discussed are the predictors and reference to the outcome in the The Central Park Five case but were not merely the only contributors to what played down. The characteristics of the participants in the case right from the principals, the supporters to the legal officials also contribute to the events and outcomes in a case (Baumgartner, 1999). The principals refer to individuals that are party to a case ranging from the complainants, defendants, suspects etc. The identity of the parties and characteristics of each to the other have magnificent impacts on the results of a case. A rape case against a White by a Black is likely to attract a higher penal code than one between two Whites, two Blacks or one against a Black by a White. This explains why the five Black and Latino teens were treated to such public atrocities and eventually wrongfully convicted. In addition to the White victim from the rape tragedy garnered immense public support that hailed all the way from the lowest member in the society to the highest such as politicians. Due to the political status at the time, there was need, to label the Blacks as criminals and doing so served to give the victim more support (Burns & Burns, 2012). The higher the level of support that a principal to a case has, the more their influence on the case outcome is. With the media publishing all sorts of articles meant to condemn the five teenagers and with their victim having more support, the The Central Park Five were fighting a losing battle. The legal officials during the case and even in the documentary where the convicts have already been pardoned appear to have a strong conviction that the five were and are still guilty. Many of the legal officials were Whites and they do not have any regrets whatsoever for the decisions they made and how they managed the case. This shows that the officials were highly inclined towards the victim in the incident that prompted the case. 7 SOCIOLOGY OF A CASE IN THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE Different variables influence and determine the outcomes of many legal cases. Most of these variables which Black describes as both dependent and independent are socially engineered. The variables cause variations in the cases, predict the outcomes, and determine the most important figure in the cases. The social dimensions and other contributors to case outcomes play a significant role in the condemnation and conviction of The Central Park Five. Through the variables, the five defendants in the case are relegated to the lowest social status in the economy and defined along marginalized lines making it impossible for the jury to see the five beyond what is presented before them. 8 SOCIOLOGY OF A CASE IN THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE References Baumgartner, M. P. (Ed.). (1999). The social organization of law. Emerald Group Publishing. Black, D. (1983). Crime as social control. American sociological review, 34-45. Burns, K., & Burns, S. (2012). The Central Park Five. New York City: Florentine Films.
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