Crimes are committed every day. Some crimes are more unforgivable than others. On April 20, 1989 at Central Park in New York City, an unforgivable crime was committed when a woman was raped and severely beaten. But that day, another crime was committed when the NYPD placed the blame on five young boys and manipulated them into confessing to a crime they didn’t commit. How did this happen? Sociologists have made theories that when applied to this situation may help explain. Three of these theories are structural functionalist, symbolic interactionist, and the conflict perspective. In this paper I will discuss these theories and then use them to analyze the events of this case as portrayed in Central Park Five.
The first theory that can be used to analyze Central Park Five is the structural functionalist theory. According to this theory, crime is a necessary part of all healthy societies. A crime is an act that offends certain very strong collective sentiments among a society. Different societies have different sentiments, as do different people within societies. Because of this, some people will end up with a “criminal character” (Adler 75). However, according to the structural functionalist theory, these criminals play a needed role in society. If no one ever broke the laws, collective sentiments wouldn’t be relooked at and revised and society wouldn’t be able to move forward and change with the changing times. In Central Park Five, a young woman is raped and beaten in Central Park and left for dead. This highly offends the collective sentiment of respect and dignity for individuals. Due to the rapist’s background, among other factors, he possessed sentiments different from the rest of society. The punishment of this crime, along with extensive media coverage that took place, can serve as a reinforcement that rape is unacceptable. Unfortunately in this case, the wrong people were found guilty of the crime due to law enforcement agents treating the five...