Central Park Jogger

Race, Class, and Gender

The attack occurred in the context of peaking homicide rates in New York City, fueled by the crack cocaine epidemic, increasing gentrification of the areas around Central Park, growing gaps between those who had benefited and those who had suffered under President Ronald Reagan's economic policies, and increasing gender and racial tension resulting from several other divisive court cases. With these trends as the background, the Central Park Jogger case became a field upon which these conflicts could play out. With the help of the media and several high-profile public figures, the case resulted in what some have called a “moral panic,” a vastly disproportionate response to a real or imagined public threat. Public fear of so-called wilding, or out-of-control minority youth committing racially motivated random violence, skyrocketed.

Media reporting of the case contributed significantly to its framing in terms of racial conflict. The races of both the defendants and victim were mentioned frequently. Although the defendants were minors, the police released their names, addresses, and pictures for publication because of the seriousness of the crime. The defendants were frequently described in news articles as a gang, a term with distinct racial connotation, even though they were not members of any street gang. Media accounts also frequently described the defendants as “animals,” “feral beasts,” “savages,” a “wolf pack,” and a “roving gang,” invoking negative racial stereotypes and fueling racial conflict. The term wilding became a buzzword for any violence or disorder committed by minority youth against Whites. The case also contributed to the myth of the rise of the juvenile superpredator: brutal, amoral, minority adolescent criminals who were beyond the reach of social and rehabilitative programs. The superpredator myth was frequently used to justify harsher criminal justice policies in the face of falling crime rates in the 1990s.

...