Frontline: Juvenile Justice

Should teenagers who commit serious crimes be tried as juveniles or adults? What happens to young offenders who reach the 'end of the line' in the juvenile court system - and how do you rehabilitate these young people to prevent future criminal behavior? FRONTLINE explores these questions as it follows four juvenile offenders - one white, two Hispanic, and one African American - through the Santa Clara, California, juvenile courts, observing how the criminal justice system treats their cases and determines their fates.

Frontline: Medicating Kids

A report on parents, educators and doctors trying to make sense of a mysterious and controversial mental diagnosis: ADHD

Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain

Frontline: Testing Our Schools

Frontline: Failure to Protect

Failure to Protect: The Caseworker Files
Failure to Protect: The Taking of Logan Marr

When should a parent lose the right to raise a child? Frontline goes behind the scenes of one state's child welfare system.

Frontline: The Meth Epidemic

The Meth Epidemic

An investigation into how and why meth use spiraled out of control and became the fastest-growing drug abuse problem in America.

Also see the Oregonian report.

Frontline: When Kids Get Life

"The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that allows children under 18 to be prosecuted as adults and sentanced to life without parole. Currently there are more than 2000 of these young offenders imprisoned for the rest of their natural lives. This is the story of five of them in the state of California."

At Project 1:17, this semester we have been looking at the Juvenile Justice system. I believe that as William Booth said that we should "go for souls and go for the worst" - our commitment to work with youth whom society has deemed, "the worst of the worst" should be the people who we care for and minister to. This Frontline Documentary, When Kids Get Life, captures this world. You can watch the show online and explore the webpage for a variety of additional resources.

I have become more and more fascinated with correctional ministry - I would love to see more and more Salvationists get involved in chaplaincy in these types of facilities.

Let's Get Married - PBS Frontline Documentary by Alex Kotlowitz

Marriage is in trouble. Over the past half-century the number of single-parent households has skyrocketed to one-third of all U.S. families. The traditional American family structure appears to be crumbling.

President Bush and a growing marriage movement think it's time to take action. They are promoting marriage -- especially among the poor. Get people married, the thinking goes, and poverty will be reduced. Stem the tide of divorce and we'll solve many of society's ills. But is it that simple? Should the government have an activist role in personal relationships? And does marriage, in fact, really matter?

In "Let's Get Married," author and FRONTLINE correspondent Alex Kotlowitz explores these questions. "During my reporting, I became convinced that marriage, this most private of institutions, has very public consequences," Kotlowitz says. "And yet we have such a tough time talking about it. Why is that? This was kind of a personal journey for me -- an effort, in part, to answer that question -- and to figure out a way to talk about marriage and its critical place in our social framework."

"Let's Get Married" examines the social, political, and economic forces that have converged to advance the modern marriage movement -- an amalgam of Christian activists, political conservatives, and intellectuals.

Cool Hunting - The Colonization of Contemporary Youth Culture

Three years ago, youth culture specialist Douglas Rushkoff produced a documentary called The Merchants of Cool. In this documentary he explored the feedback loop between youth culture and consumer culture (in particular media conglomerates).

[For those who have not seen this brilliant doc. this can also be viewed online. Also, check out this interesting interview].

Five major themes emerge in the documentary:

• The Clout of Media Giants
• The Symbiotic Relationship Between The Media and Teenagers
• Where Are the Adults?
• What's this Doing to Kids?
• The Coarsening of Culture

Rushkoff wrote about this subject in Coercion where he says, "The techniques of coercion have advanced so far over the past several decades that we no longer live in a world where the best man wins. It's a world where the person who has made us believe he is the best man wins."

When I first viewed this documentary, I found myself most shocked by the thought that no matter what a person does, it seems impossible to resist the lure of the advertizing industries, but is this so? Do we all need to simply concede to whatever the latest and greatest trends are? Or is it possible to resist? Or is there a third alternative... One where there can be a negotiation between producer and consumer - making the consumer in essence a co-producer?

Robert McChesney graphically refers to this as the colonization of today's youth culture - exept the tanks and guns are media. I would tend to agree with McChesney that this seems to be the intention of most of the media industry, it doesn't mean that this automatically means that concession is automatic or enforced. To build on the colonial metaphor, colonization does not mean that everyone hegemonically follows the ideologies imparted by the colonialist. Some do. Some are involved in anarchic resistance. Others are involved in what Paulo Freire calls limited co-operation - a critical, dialogical posture of negotiation - which recognizes that there are both winfalls and pitfalls with any political system. A youth culture that is critically conscious can accept or reject the ideas being propogated by media industries... However, the imperative word remains 'conscious.' Merchants of Cool is a documentary which serves as a loud speaker to awaken the giant - a gauntlet which challenges today's teens to recognize their power and influence.

I would really recommend this documentary to anyone who is seriously interested in exploring the relationship of media and youth culture - particularly as a launchpad into further dialogue and research.

[NOTE: For Project 117 students - but others are invited to participate]
1. Read Malcolm Gladwell's article.
2. Explore the Frontline sight in further detail.
3. Take one of the major themes from Merchants of Cool and post your reflections/insights/additional links.
4. Finally, is it possible to escape this type of cool-hunting by consuming "Christian alternatives?" Where does Christian merchandizing fit into this?