Jeff Coats was 14 years old when he kidnapped David Grenier and stole his car in Tacoma, Washington. The crime took place against a backdrop of moral panic: two criminologists forecast a wave of juvenile “superpredators” who would create a “teenage bloodbath” across America. 20 years later, Jeff and David reflect on the crime and how it restructured their lives.
In “Superpredators Revisited,” we put Jeff and David’s story into a wider sociological perspective. In the 1970s and 80s, American lawmakers on the right and the left abandoned the goal of rehabilitating criminals. Meanwhile, the US enacted a range of tough anti-crime policies that created the largest prison population in the world. Now criminal justice policy places more emphasis on punishment than on rehabilitation. Nevertheless, roughly half of all people leaving prison do not re-enter it. But their stories are seldom heard. What can these men and women teach us about crime, punishment and the human capacity for change?
“Superpredators Revisited” is the first episode from the Rethinking Punishment Radio Project. The Project uses documentary storytelling to mobilize research on important sociological trends and human rights issues. It is a collaboration between professor Katherine Beckett at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights and Cited, a new podcast from the University of British Columbia hosted by Sam Fenn and Gordon Katic.
The Rethinking Punishment Radio Project was featured on:
- Seattle Weekly News with Mark Baumgarten on March 24, 2015. More here.
- KUOW with Ross Reynolds on March 27, 2015. Listen here.
“Superpredators Revisted” aired on college and campus radio stations in British Columbia on February 25th, and is available for syndication and download via iTunes.