Punished, Victor M. Rios
Punished, Victor M. Rios
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Punished
Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys

Author: Victor M. Rios

Narrator: Rudy Sanda

Unabridged: 8 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/16/2017


Synopsis

Victor Rios grew up in the ghetto of Oakland, California, in the 1980s and 90s. A former gang member and juvenile delinquent, Rios managed to escape the bleak outcome of many of his friends and earned a PhD at Berkeley and returned to his hometown to study how inner-city young Latino and African American boys develop their sense of self in the midst of crime and intense policing. Punished examines the difficult lives of these young men, who now face punitive policies in their schools, communities, and a world where they are constantly policed and stigmatized.

Rios followed a group of forty delinquent black and Latino boys for three years. These boys found themselves in a vicious cycle, caught in a spiral of punishment and incarceration as they were harassed, profiled, watched, and disciplined at young ages, even before they had committed any crimes, eventually leading many of them to fulfill the destiny expected of them. But beyond a fatalistic account of these marginalized young men, Rios finds that the very system that criminalizes them and limits their opportunities, sparks resistance and a raised consciousness that motivates some to transform their lives and become productive citizens.

About Victor M. Rios

Victor M. Rios, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the award-winning author of several books, including Street Life: Poverty, Gangs, and a PhD.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sharlyn on April 28, 2014

This book provides such terrific insight into hypercriminalization for those who have not experienced it personally. Rios is incredibly skilled at explaining in accessible ways the social processes by which young men's identities and characteristics (black or brown, poor; certain styles of dress or......more

Goodreads review by Brad on January 06, 2018

This is a readable but dense ethnography, and reads like the author's dissertation - so be forewarned if you were hoping for an easy read. That said, this is really good. One major point from this book that was new for me: the enforcement/corrections apparatus has invaded the education system. If yo......more

Goodreads review by Gina on November 08, 2019

Fascinating and heartbreaking, this is a good examination of how the school to prison pipeline plays out, though that pipeline includes the neighborhood and has a strong race factor. There are many eye-opening anecdotes, especially related to job-seeking, but the opening anecdote of police harassmen......more

Goodreads review by Megi on April 10, 2020

Wonderful book! Rios demonstrates how punitive social control, criminalization and stigmatization affect lives of many young people in Oakland, California. This book made me think of sociological imagination and how realizing that our personal issues require structural changes might help us unveil t......more

Goodreads review by Lance on July 22, 2020

Rios's dissertation work-turned-book is a fantastic and powerful read that feels like a perfect counterpart to The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Over several years, Rios situates himself among a group of Latino and Black young men in Oakland, California to learn from......more