Using Popular Culture in the Classroom: Views of the Film Manic Among Students of Juvenile Delinquency

Abstract

Students in an undergraduate course in Juvenile Delinquency viewed the film Manic, which depicts troubled youth in an institutional setting and touches on many of the core concepts students were exposed to throughout their course. Students then wrote reflective essays. The authors sampled from those essays, supplemented with reviews of the film, and presented these statements to the students in the form of a Q sort. Factor analysis revealed three distinct views, revolving around the effectiveness of institutional treatment for troubled youth. Interestingly, the factor most supportive of the institution was comprised mostly of Criminal Justice majors.