The Circle of Guilt

Description

In 1955 a New York City court sentenced Puerto Rican immigrant and teenage gang member Frank Santana to twenty-five years to life for second-degree murder. Fredric Wertham, one of the most influential authorities on child psychology in the twentieth century, was outraged and felt compelled to write *The Circle of Guilt*. He had conducted multiple interviews with Santana and created an extensive psychological profile on him. Wertham saw unsettling patterns in the ways in which the case was reported, investigated, and deliberated. Media portrayed the victim, a white teenager named Bill Blankenship, as a "model boy" and reported the killing as "unprovoked." In the furor surrounding the case, Santana was often called a "hoodlum." Wertham suspected otherwise. In *The Circle of Guilt*, the psychiatrist uncovers a paradigm of fear, racism, distrust, and prejudice. He argues that the press's presentation of the case reflected extreme cultural bigotry. Wertham also reveals Blankenship's activity within teen gangs and asserts that Santana's actions were shaped in part by his unmediated exposure to mass media.

Description

This volume exposes the facts behind one of America's most shocking murders -- the story of Frank Santana, the so-called "hoodlum" who killed so-called "model-boy" Billy Blankenship. Santana, a fatherless boy from Puerto Rico, joined a stick-ball group which evolved into a gang for self-protection. Prejudice in the neighborhood was strong. What was not generally known, however, was that the victim was also a member of a gang who made a practice of beating up Puerto Ricans. The author, a noted psychiatrist who was asked to examine Santana by the defense, describes the events, the background and much data not heard in court. He argues that the media's presentation of the case reflected extreme cultural bigotry and ultimate legal bias against Santana. The author also concludes that people in general were beginning to feel less and less responsible for their actions, and that this was causing more violent crime in America. He suggested that comics and the mass media were contributing to this.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The Circle of GuiltRinehart1956-01-01
• The Circle of GuiltPaperbackUniversity Press of Mississippi2007-04-01
• The circle of guiltRinehart1956-01-01
• The Circle of GuiltRinehart1956-01-01
• The Circle of GuiltDobson1958-01-01
• The Circle of GuiltDobson1958-01-01