Garcia 1

Dulce Garcia
Roberta Wolfson
Writing 2
February 1, 2016
Criminalization in Latino youth
Criminalization among the youth in Latino communities is one of the most serious and
painful issues going on in todays society. Why do young poor boys join gangs, break the law
and become imprisoned at such a young age? In order to understand the topic of incarceration
among the young Latino community, it is important to highlight the reasons why they are
committing these crimes in the first place. Two different disciplines, such as sociology and
statistics, take different approaches when discussing this specific topic of incarceration in the
texts of Punished by Victor Rios and Criminal Alien Statistics Information on Incarcerations,
Arrests, and Costs written by the government accountability office. The way the U.S
government approaches this study is through a statistical approach that differs from Victor Rios
sociological take on it. Rios approach examines the development of Latino boys surrounded by
crime, which is more effective opposed to statistics, because it helps the reader understand who
these boys were, what they did and where they came from before being incarcerated. On the
other hand, the U.S accountability office only focuses on the statistical analysis of the number
and nationalities of incarcerated aliens in the US, the types of offenses leading to their arrest and
the costs linked with incarcerating non-Americans, as opposed to sociology. Sociology reaches a
larger audience, draws attention to a more human-like element and discusses the impact of this
criminalization issue on society as a whole. Therefore, a statistical analysis will not be effective
when attempting to understand why young men are taking the wrong path in life because it only
provides numbers, rather than background analysis of each boys life and culture.

Garcia 2
In Punished, Victor Rios enriches the readers understanding of the topic of incarceration
by highlighting the personal experiences of young Latinos through an ethnographic study. Rios
argues that in order to understand the criminal decisions of these boys, we need to understand
their past sad backgrounds in more depth. By using personal anecdotes, Rios presents a feeling
of empathy within his readers which help to see his side of the argument. For instance, Rios
mentions in his book that he, heard from Tyrell about being stopped by police twenty-one
times these stops ended with just a short conversation. But sometimes, police officers seemed
threatened by Tyrell, and they either handcuffed him, pulled a gun on him (Rios, 71). This
personal anecdote supports Rios argument, because it shows an example of police brutality
impacting a young mans life. Tyrell believed that everyone saw him as a threat due to the color
of his skin and height, even when he would be committing no crime. Tyrells perspective was
that he could not control his personal appearance, or the perceptions that others had of him. Rios
personally watched him being stopped several times and experienced these situations with Tyrell.
Not only did he watch these kids being wrongly policed, but Rios himself grew up in Oakland
and followed wrong pathways during his adolescence. Personal anecdotes are effective when
attempting to understand these young boys lives; they allow the reader to see how these
experiences affected them personally and mark brutal events in their development process.
One convention that is essential to a sociological study is any reference to outside sources
because it makes the discussion of criminalization credible being more effective. Rios shows an
example that serves as an effective piece of evidence that cites criminalization facts. On page 80,
Rios quotes Ferguson by saying Marginalized young people who encounter racialized punitive
treatment are not just humans-in-the-making, but resourceful social actors who take an active
role in shaping their daily experiences (61). Many of the youths develop political identities

Garcia 3
based on their resistance to criminalization. Some resist through criminal violence, others hide
from cops and some even escape by returning to school. This reference however is significant for
Rios argument because it shows how these young kids resisted criminalization and the policing
that always accompanied it. Rios argues that this resistance takes an active role in shaping their
daily lives. The reader needs to understand where these boys are coming from and what they do
before incarceration before making any judgments on their character. Ferguson has been called
the father of modern sociology, who contributed to the initial development of sociology. Quotes
referring other sources, such as Fergusons, supports Rios argument because they allow the
reader to also see credibility from similar beliefs regarding effects of marginalized people.
The emphasis on informal speaking pattern serves as evidence in Rios sociological study
because it supports his argument of how constant police brutality among the youth impacts these
youngsters personally. In Punished, after one of the young boys (Slick) and Rios were stopped
by the police on the streets, Rios said to Slick, You OK? He replied, That happens all the
time. They got nothin on me. How often does it happen? I asked. Shit! Come on, Vic! You
know wassup. It happens every day, Slick replied (Rios, 24). This quote shows an example of a
convention of sociological writing, because not only it is a personal anecdote, but it also shows a
sociological convention of dialect in an informal use. Rios use of informal narrative reflects a
unique sociological practice because the way Victor Rios and Slick speak to each other shows a
personal relationship between the sociologist and the person being studied. Compared to
statistics, there is no such evidence that shows any close relationship between the statistician and
the people studied. This sociological approach when discussing the topic, incarceration among
the young Latino boys, is a better approach than a statistical formal writing because Victor Rios
use of informal language in a dialect form helps the reader understand how these young kids

Garcia 4
truly are and how they feel. This again is essential to Rios sociological study because as a
sociologist one has to interact with their surroundings in order to understand a certain issue, as of
for a statistician, one has to gather data with numbers in order to come up with a final solution.
The statistics article uses jargon that is only understood by other statisticians or people in
a similar field, which makes it less effective for helping the general audience understand the
problem that is criminalization of Latino young boys. For example, the author says, The GAO,
the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of Congress, exists to support Congress in meeting
its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and accountability of the
federal government (GAO), and his language is very formal and straight to the point; this again
shows another convention that this discipline carries. One way that Sociology and Statistics
approach the topic of criminalization differently is seen through the authors word choice. A
statisticians use of highly educated words is only directed to a specific audience, those who
understand statistics in more depth. In contrast, the discipline of Sociology, Rios word choice is
much more colloquial and easier to understand for the public. The authors main concern in the
statistical study is to simply provide the results on the number of incarcerated non-Americans, as
opposed to sociology providing reasons of the why they are being imprisoned.
In an ethnographic study, survey data is an essential convention in the sociology
discipline because it is useful to explain different opinions on any topic, in this case
incarceration. For example, Rios used a chart representing a survey, titled Class status at First
Contact of Forty Youths Studied in Depth (GAO). The chart shows three different categories:
working class (Two Parent, low-wage incomes), working poor: (Single Parent, low-wage
income) and extremely poor (Unemployment single parent household). Under the chart, Rios
describes that for the first category, out of 40 non-Americans young people, he had 12 people.

Garcia 5
For the second category, 1 person out 40, and for the third 1 person out 40 as well. As a
sociologist, he uses the evidence of a survey data to support his argument of looking through
Latino life experiences, where they come from, where they live and with whom, who supports
them and what is their background information. This evidence serves as a way of reassuring the
audience that the boys Rios is studying, come from a low income family, meaning they have
struggles out on the streets but at home as well.
As opposed to a sociologist, the GAO conducted a study called Criminal Alien Statistics
Information on Incarcerations, Arrests, and Costs, in which he takes a different approach basing
it on mathematical numbers and data. This statistical study was opened with an analysis which
included a short summary on the collective data gathered. For example, a convention of a
statistics discipline is a number of gathered data from a random sample. In this case, the U.S
Government Accountability came up with an analysis of the number and nationalities, the types
of offenses leading to their arrest and the costs linked with incarcerating non-Americans. They
described their methodology being on data the government obtained that represented a portion of
the total population of criminal aliens who may have been incarcerated at the state and local
levels. They used different kinds of evidence such as charts and illustrations; one chart was titled
Major Offense Categories for Federal Conviction and demonstrates different major offenses
such as: immigration, drugs and economic. To support the analysis, they also used a
mathematical chart which shows the Costs in Fiscal Year 2010 Dollars to Incarcerate Criminal
Aliens to show that within 49 states, about 810 local jurisdictions received reimbursement in
fiscal year 2009 compared to 730 local jurisdictions in fiscal year 2005. In other words, the
findings of the United States office of accountability stimulated further research on the number
of aliens found in prisons. Again, when discussing the topic of incarceration among Latino

Garcia 6
youth, statistics takes an approach through mathematical numbers and data, not personal support
as opposed to sociology; Numbers and graphs are less effective when understanding personal
decisions young Latinos had to make when committing a crime.
The ethnographic study of Victor Rios on criminalization impacts how society sees the
Latino male. This comes from the stories and voices of young males, who have actually suffered
from the imbalanced attitudes of the local police towards their racial backgrounds. In contrast,
the statistical study from the government incorporates the use of quantitative research,
mathematical models, theories and hypothesis graphs that wont describe in depth the reasons for
the committing of these crimes. In order to understand why the youth keep committing
delinquencies, we need to do research through an ethnographic sociological study not a statistics
data analysis. Statisticians tend to expect the audience to be familiar with the discipline, whereas
Sociologists have less expectations for the readers because it is the study of everyday people.
The discipline of sociology is more effective and will help us understand the development,
structure, and functioning of Latino youth. We as a society benefit more from in depth personal
research because we will be able to live the daily routines these young adults go through.
Understanding the reasons why choices are made, and knowing which options were even offered,
sheds ignorance.

Garcia 7

Works Cited
Rios, Victor M. Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. New York: New York
UP, 2011. Print.
The U.S Government Accountability Office. Criminal Alien Statistics Information on
Incarcerations, Arrests, and Costs. GAO. United States, Mar. 2011. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.