Social Structure Perspective : Boy N The Hood

The film Boyz ‘n the Hood, directed by John Singleton is more than just a Hollywood blockbuster. The film incorporates numerous criminological theories and also demonstrates the concepts of conformity and deviance. This paper will analyze the characters of Tre, Ricky, Doughboy, Furious and other friends and family and show how criminological theories and the concepts of conformity and deviance play a part in their lives.

“Boyz n the hood” takes place in South Central Los Angeles in 1984. The main actors in the movie are Cuba Gooding Jr as Tre, Morris Chestnut as Ricky, and Ice Cube as Doughboy. In the beginning of the movie it says, “One out of twenty-one Black American males will be murdered in their lifetime” followed by “Most will die at the hands of another black male”. Later it shows the main characters in the movie Tre, Ricky and Doughboy as kids each of them having plans in life. Ricky’s dream is to become a football player and Tre going to college and doughboy still not deciding what he wants to do in life.

Throughout the 1992 film, “Boyz in the Hood,” John Singleton takes a closer look at urban black America in South Central Los Angeles. Doughboy, Ricky and Trey, along with their parents are chronicled from childhood to adulthood. Each person, though living in the same neighborhood chooses different paths in life. These characters were raised in a very deviant community, however there were many causes as to why they did not all become deviant. Deviance is defined as behavior that goes against what is socially acceptable. It is when a person disregards what is normal in a specific society and acts upon it. Throughout the movie these characters had many chances to engage in deviant behavior, as some did while

The documentary Crips and the Bloods: Made in America tells the dramatic story of the perpetual gang violence that runs the streets of Los Angeles, California. Gaining an inside look at how and why this violence is continued, the video focuses on the individuals that are affected by the gangs. Families are torn apart due to endless murders, children are taught to hate and act violently towards their neighbors, and people lose their soul to the gangs that they call their families. Of course every person must make a choice to engage in this sort of life, but sometimes these people are put into situations where there are no other options. In order to further think about what has caused and maintained the violence in the LA area, we can look towards Agnew’s General Strain Theory and the Labeling Theory.

Boyz N the Hood is a painful but powerful look at the lives of African Americans, mostly male, who live in a lower-middle class neighborhood (hood) in LA. Three primary relationships is the

"When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw," (Kazi, 2017). The modern societies around the world put a high importance on preventing criminal activity and rectifying behavior that leads to crime. In an ongoing struggle against corruption, many sociologists, and psychologists have done in-depth research to understand what is the cause of crime in our society. Initially, in 1893, Emile Durkheim first came up with the idea called Anomie Theory to explain why offenses take place in our communities. Durkheim reported that crimes took place in our society because there was a lack of ethical norms and social standards within our communities (Walsh, 2018).However, almost half a century later, Robert K. Merton developed Merton's Strain Theory to thoroughly explain why some people in our society are more likely to commit crimes than the others who don’t. Merton’s Strain Theory argues that corruption not only occurs in our communities because we lack norms in our society, but are also caused by the strains that are present among us as individuals which influence people to commit the crime. In his explanation, people will resort to achieving success through illegitimate means when they are blocked from acquiring success through legitimate means (Walsh, 2018). After studying the classical strain theories, I think that Merton’s Strain Theory explains street crimes such as robbery, theft, assault, and drug dealing better than

Discusses how race is a conceptualized concept most often through stereotypes of different groups with the presence of a systematic structure of racism where the dominant group has placed themselves as superior and all other groups are deemed inferior. This structure often produces a negative impact on same race relations. Identity, according to this theory is created due to psychological enforcement of repeated racial oppression. The movie “Boyz N’ The Hood” demonstrates the effect of this enforced systematic structure and its negative impact on same race relations which lead to the ultimate death of some of the characters in this film (Singleton,1991). The movie takes place in impoverished South Central Los Angeles and depicts scenes of violence perpetrated by gangs against the main characters of the movie. Janet Helms points out that racial theory consists of four models White Identity, Black Identity, People of Color, and the Racial interaction model. She points out that the more an individual becomes aware of the social constructs of race and the racist system the closer

Boyz in the Hood starts off with the character Tre Styles as a young man who lives in South Central, Los Angeles with his mom Rita. The social work student viewed this beginning portion of the movie portraying his young life as a social worker. The social work student noticed that Tre lived with his mother in an apartment in a rough neighborhood. Tre went to school but had problems acting out and being the class clown. Tre and the friends he hung around here had foul language and used profanity as young kids. This is just one example of how Tre’s surroundings influenced his life. According to Newman & Newman (2014), the Social Role theory suggests that a person learns behaviors from observing in their environments. Young Tre Styles learned profanity from somewhere in his rough environment and this is a method of learning socially. Rita, his mother was working on her Master’s degree and wanted better for Tre, so it is unlikely she promoted the use of profanity in her household. A contract between the two was drafter and Tre agreed with his mother that if he did not behave he would move in with his father. Rita stayed true to the contract they drafted and took Tre to live with his father Furious, so Tre could learn how to be a man.

The characters: Tre Styles and Mookie are two young African-Americans in the films “Boyz N The Hood” and “Do The Right Thing” respectively. Both films were released around the same time period, with DO THE RIGHT THING being released in 1989, and BOYZ N THE HOOD in 1991. Both films are coming of age tales for Tre and Mookie, they both reside in a low-income, predominantly black neighborhood. Both films share a common theme: the idea of hopelessness and survival as a young black male in the “hood.” Both men are a product of what can only be described as “urban decay;” they are trying to find their place in a society that doesn’t care much for their well being or success. BOYZ N THE HOOD and DO THE RIGHT THING have a common

The movie Boyz N the Hood is an illustration of how a group of early adolescents’ lives was affected negatively due to the environment they lived in. These adolescents lived in an environment where drugs, gangs, and shootings were the center of their community. Living in a predominantly African American community these adolescents were faced with many misfortunes. Ricky one of the adolescent characters I have decided to evaluate for this particular paper was faced with adversity.

In this paper, I will analysis the film Boyz N the Hood based on and around the criminology concept of the General Strain Theory. The film Boyz N the Hood depicts a story about an African-American boy growing up in “the hood” of South Central LA. South Central is a place where on average 1 out of 21 African American men will be die as a result of “the streets”. African Americans within the African-American community are more susceptible to becoming a casualty to gang affiliation and violence. If a person makes the wrong choices in life or even if they are faced with the right circumstances that force this person to join a gang their likelihood of dying as a result dramatically increases.

Boyz in the Hood is a statement of how urban youth have been passed a legacy of tragic indifference, and the writer has shown that it is an almost inescapable fate for those born into racism and poverty to repeat the patterns they wish to escape. The movie’s characters are clear representations of how the system fails young black youth in the United States, and the difference one mentor can make for these kids. During segregation young black children became targets for white brutality. This movie reflects what the European mentality and what it has done to the African American culture.

Some challenges between anti-social behaviors and geographic are evident in the film Boyz n the Hood. It a 90’s films created by John Singleton, about a boy Tre styles who is sent to live with his father Furious styles in South Central Los Angeles after he got into a fight at school. At his father 's house, he is taught morals and values of being a respected man. On the other hand, his friends Ricky and Doughboy who are half-brothers has a different upbringing with no real support system, resulting in forming a gang, involvement with drugs and a tragic ending. This film is based on the African American experience in terms of environmental conditions which results in a great deal of African American males being pushed into the criminal justice system.

Throughout the film, common tragedies of a black community plagued with gangs are shown, such as violence, police brutality, poverty, and racism. Because of this, Boyz N the Hood initially appears to just be another typical film about the perils of black communities and a character’s mission to escape. However, it is seen through the main characters that Singleton places an importance on the role of fathers and the lack thereof within black families; this is still relevant today as

Furthermore, Boyz N the Hood also offers an honest and realistic portrayal of a father's absence in urban America. This is best exemplified by Tre's boyhood friends, who lack a strong fatherly influence, end up involved in gang violence, selling drugs, and other societal traps. More specifically, a close friend, Doughboy, lacks a father in his life. And although Doughboy's mother ties to lead him in the right direction, she favors Doughboy's brother Ricky over him, and Doughboy ends up spending time in prison and dealing drugs. Doughboy experiences gang-related violence first-hand and ultimately becomes a neighborhood victim. Without a strong father figure, Doughboy never valued responsibility, dedication, respect for women, or morality. Resultantly, he succumbs to his neighborhood's social ills.