Criminalization In Baca's Memoir, They Made Him A Crime
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They Made Him a Criminal
According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of criminalize is to make something illegal, turn into a criminal or treat as criminal. In Baca’s memoir, he has introduced to us about the concept of the “process of criminalization”. For example: “I don't know when the process of criminalization began for any one of the kids I hung out with or woke up with in a prison cell” (A Place to Stand 31-32). In this event, Baca was pondering about his situation in comparison with those kids and people he met in both detention center and prison. Besides, he also believed that his “process of criminalization” began when his mother first dropped his brother and him at Estancia. However, Baca determined that “process of criminalization” became more clearly to him with his experience of antisocial environment in detention center.…show more content… For example: “I was five years old the first time I ever set foot in prison. In time I would become all too familiar with such places, not only with those very same cells down on Garcia Street but with a long string of others as well, on different if equally dusty streets, with different but similar men (A Place to Stand 1 & 3).” In this context, it explained that the exposure of prison has impacted on a young kid’s development. To Baca, prison was not just a place for a person who did a crime but it was the place where he got a chance to see his father