Blog post #1

USA TODAY recently wrote an article regarding Cyntoia Brown’s case. She was arrested at the age of 16 in 2004 for the murder of a man that had taken her illegally for sex trafficking. At the time of her trial she was tried as an adult and sentenced to serve 51 years without parole. However, within the past year or so her case has been put into the spot light with major celebrities speaking out for her. It was only then that the circumstances she was in were brought into the case. Before she was even born, her mother was a heavy drinker, which lead to her suffering of fetal alcohol syndrome. She grew up in an abusive household, she moved onto the streets where she herself became a heavy drinker and drug user and was later involved in sex trafficking, thus leading to the murder of the man who was, at the time, double her age. Unfortunately, as horrifying as this case may seem, there are hundreds of other cases so just like hers. The prosecutor in her case spoke out about the flaws in our criminal justice system. When he addressed the other, and very similar cases he said “these largely forgotten people have not received a celebrity endorsement. Their names have not become hashtags.”  

This whole situation relates to sociology in many ways. The original trial, the recent clemency granting, and all the other cases just like this one, that are all due to the poor justice system. The original trial revolves around the microsociology, because this case is affecting only Cyntonia, whereas the failures of the justice system, and the hundreds of other cases just like this one are categorized under macrosociology. They go from fighting for this one girl in one case, but when you step back to look at the big picture, it is covered so many other cases that are involving young adults, who have been sentenced to 50+ years in jail for crimes that were committed under extremely horrible conditions.  When you look at this all without any bias, or previous knowledge of the case, you would believe that she is doing what she must do in order to keep herself alive using self-defense as her only option. Structural functionalism is where each structure in a society must meet certain standards or needs of that society in order to continue running smoothly. So, my question is how will society keep running smoothly when the justice system is failing hundreds of young people, who fought to stay alive, and are now spending most of their lives behind bars?  (word count 436)