Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

The documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills reminds me a lot of our class discussion, and the violence/outcast discussion in general. This documentary follows the trials of the “West Memphis Three” and shows how society (especially the media) demonizes those suspected of committing crimes. These three teenagers were accused of murdering and mutilating three young boys. Even though contradictory stories were provided and forced confessions were admitted into trial, all three teens were convicted of murder. The prosecuting lawyers and the town vilified the boys because they were outcasts, they played violent video games, they wore black, and they read about the Wicca religion. Basically, they were convicted of murder for being different (just as they were picked on in school for being different). None of the physical evidence made sense, and none of the boys were linked to the crime scene or to the corpses, it is the perfect case of a legal and criminal scapegoat (just as violent video games are used as a scapegoat for more serious and broad social problems).

There has always been a counterculture for every mainstream culture…hippies, punks, Goths, whatever (and it is sort of annoying for me to even be classifying them). When will we have an adult society recognizes that youth culture is as harmless as it was when they constituted the youth culture?