Looting during Detroit Riots
Social Learning Theory and Neutralization Theory
Social Learning Theory & Neutralization Theory: all behaviors, including crime and police violence, are learned. By making it harder for people to believe the justifications – e.g. taking from the rich to give to the poor – they tell themselves before they act, crime can be reduced.
Title: Unknown.
Object Type: photograph
Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches; 20.32 x 25.4 cm
Medium: gelatin silver print
Date: 1967
Location: unknown
Accession No: BS.2005.270637
Photographer: Dennis Brack. Brack has had an extensive career in photojournalism, covering events like the U.S. presidency, american military operations, civil rights movements, and riots. American, b. 1939 d. unknown
Category: The Black Star Collection, Toronto Metropolitan University. Courtesy of The Image Centre.
Inscriptions: Recto, [no inscription]; Versp, handwritten: 11 #1; stamped: [star] / Credit: / DENNIS BRACK / from BLACK STAR; handwritten: Detroit Riots
Museum Label by Maya Mortella and Michael Nasello, CR8002 : Critical Engagement and Criminological Theories, Winter 2020
At least they are walking out alive.
The three day period during the hot summer of 1967 was a result of racial tensions at their highest as the Black rights movement gained support. Violence filled the boroughs of Detroit, resonating with the similar scene of the Vietnam War. There were military personnel, police, and state officials trying to ‘control’ the situation. This control resulted in the unnecessary deaths of over 40 people, many of whom were only guilty of witnessing the chaos. Looting was responded to with shooting. The two men in the forefront of the image seem to be a part of the protest. Potentially looting. Looting was a response to the systemic injustices that many impoverished African American communities were subjected to. However, was looting worth your life? It may have been worth a criminal conviction.
At least they are walking out alive.
Bibliography
- Photojournalism: Dennis Brack.(n.d.). Retrieved from The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History (external link, opens in new window)
- 1967 Detroit Riots. (2017, September, 27). Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/ 1960s/1967-detroit-riots