Gabriel Fernandez
Gabriel Fernandez, an eight-year-old boy, faced unbearable suffering for months. He experienced torture and abuse, leading to his sudden death around May 2013. Gabriel’s mother and father, Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre were held responsible for Gabriel’s torture, abuse, and death, thereby sentenced to life imprisonment and death. Gabriel Fernandez’s death raised controversies and questioning of the integrity of children and family service and the police departments in Los Angeles. This essay focuses on Gabriel’s life course, crime circumstances, media portrayal, and how victimology theories connect to the case.
Life-course
According to Thompson (2020), Gabriel experienced torture from the hands of his mother and her boyfriend because he was allegedly gay. Thompson further explains that in May 2013, paramedics countering to a child unable to breathe, on arrival, they found Gabriel on the floor. At the scene, they realized that something menacing took place. There was need of rushing him to the hospital. The hospital examination identified a cracked skull, bruises, broken ribs, missing teeth, and burn marks on his body. The hospital declared Gabriel as brain dead, unfortunately, two days later, he died. On determining the cause of death, there was the establishment of investigation.
The investigation uncovered a gradual abuse directory. Thompson explains that the researchers discovered that a few months before Gabriel’s death, he forcefully ate his vomit, locked in a cabinet, sprayed with pepper spray, and gagged to be quiet. Also, he experienced starvation, suffered bruises from BB gunshot and whips, and burns from cigarettes. In addition to this, his mother Pearl and her boyfriend Aguirre would bound and bite him, then, to cover the bruises, they would apply to makeup on him. Although there were warning signs from relatives, teachers, and therapists, there was no consideration of removing Gabriel from home. This led to the firing of Los Angeles social workers believed to falsifying reports.
Furthermore, Thompson (2020) expounds on how the jury handled Gabriel’s case. The panel conceptualized Aguirre’s actions not relative to drugs nor health issues but because he believed the 8-year-old was gay. As a result, he forced Gabriel to wear girls’ clothing to school. During the court process, the prosecutor described Gabriel’s ultimate vision of a gigantic man taking away his life. He further pointed out evidence against Aguirre, thereby classifying him as nothing but a bully. Aguirre faced death sentence penalty, whereas Fernandez faced a life sentence with no chances of parole.
Media portrayal
Gabriel Fernandez’s trials had impacts on national and international media. On Netflix, ‘the trial of Gabriel Fernandez’ is a crime documentary that associates the experiences and trial processes on the abuse and murder of the eight-year-old boy directed by Brian Knappenberger. Gajanan (2020), states that the film featured a disturbing assessment of the systemic forces advocating child abuse in the United States. The author further identifies the film director, Brian Knappenberger, seeking to answer the specific events that happened to Gabriel and why no one tried to rescue him. The director claimed that the essence of the film was to elaborate on how everyone ignored Gabriel when he was alive and how individuals should treat their children.
Victimology theories
Multiple victimology theories are seeking to explain why some individuals are victims of a particular crime and why other individuals are not. It is worth noting that crime victims are those individuals who experience loss or injury due to illegal exercises. There are three victimology theories, including Situated Transaction, Threefold Model, and Routine activities (WBM, 2020). Situated Transactional approach developed by Luckenbill in 1977 incorporates the particular context on victimization, and it includes insult, clarification, retaliation, counter retaliation, the existence of a weapon, and onlookers (WBM, 2020). The threefold model establishment was due to the courtesy of Benjamin. The threefold model includes precipitating, attracting, and predisposing elements.
Furthermore, WBM (2020), identifies routine activities victimology theory, exhibits suitable targets, motivated offenders, and absence of guardian as the cause of victimization. As such, Gabriel Fernandez case combines two victimology theories; threefold model, and routine activities. This is because Gabriel was in the wrong place at the wrong time, alleged to be gay and young. Also, his parents were motivated offenders, and there was the absence of a guardian or security guard to rescue him. Therefore, explaining why Gabriel became a victim of abuse, torture, and murder consideration should be on the threefold model and routine activities victimology theories.
Overall, Gabriel Fernandez, an eight-year-old boy, faced unbearable suffering for months. His parents, Pearl and Aguirre, abused, tortured, and murdered him due to gay allegation. The call for paramedics in May 2013 to counter to a child unable to breathe led to an account of events, including investigation and court proceedings. The investigations identified bruises, broken ribs, missing teeth, a cracked skull, and burn marks. The invesion further uncovered how his parents starved, burned, and whipped him. Two days after the paramedic response and declaration of Gabriel’s brain dead, unfortunately, he died. These events captured both national and international media leading to the creation of ‘the trial of Gabriel Fernandez’ on Netflix. However, focusing on victimology theories on identifying why Gabriel fell victim, threefold and routine activities victimology theories are applicable.
References
Ganjanan .M (2020) The heartbreaking story behind Netflix’s documentary series; The trials of Gabriel Fernandez. Time’s entertainment television. Retrieved from https://time.com/5790549/gabriel-fernandez-netflix-documentary/
Thompson. E (2020). The sad life & death of Gabriel Fernandez. Morbidology True crime. Retreieved from https://morbidology.com/the-death-of-gabriel-fernandez/
WBM (2020). Victimology theory. http://faculty.ncwc.edu/mstevens/300/300lecturenote01.htm