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 (1895-1981), 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.
This reprinted edition includes a new introduction by history professor
William Bush that places both the crime and Wertham's work into cultural
and historical context. Bush argues that much of what Wertham decries in
mass media and its impact on justice and race applies equally today.
