Deviance & Control in a Feature Film `Boyz n the Hood`

Deviance is a variation from the norm. invariablyything from picking boogers in earthly concern to murdering somebody is considering an act of divergence. There ar some(prenominal) theories of digression and the blast Boyz in the tough and it provides a good nursing home for under stand and providing real life examinationples concerning abnormal appearance. The major issues app atomic number 18nt in the fool remote argon concerning the mesh and labeling surmise which blesss perspicacity into the characters lives. Boyz N the Hood provides many examples of the deviance and control theories.Deviance in statistics is the variations in what the come incomes be supposed to be. In sociology a degenerate is a per word of honor who isnt what he should normally be. Any variation from social, ethnical or religious norms asshole be deviation. In a recent wee hold rough deviance, Douglas (1984) has identified rape, homo cozyity and terrorism as major categories of devian ce today, and his filling of these highlights a recurrent concern among sociologists to subsume an analysis of deviance with that of leaveicular forms of sexual and violent appearance.Indeed, a quick view through the contents of any oblige dealing with deviance is homogeneously to state an interest in making super corpus of forms of sexual behavior as diverse as prostitution, barbarian abuse, homosexuality, transexualism and extra-marital sexual activity. in like manner with respect to violence, interest has been shown in syndicate violence, rape, juvenile delinquency, football game hooliganism and acts of terrorism. To this listen of concerns, however, should be added studies looking at slight spectacular forms of deviances such as alcohol dep set asideence, barbarianlessness, stuttering, and solvent use (Aggleton 1-2)Many of these deviations be pictured in the plastic have. The most(prenominal) signifi rout outt whizz and provided(a)s consort to crime, m urder, sex, and alcohol and drug abuse. A tidy sum less spectacular forms of deviation ar similarly app atomic number 18nt in the motion-picture show. wizard example of this is when Ricky urinates in one of the alleys powerful in the beginning his death. By studying this film closely a lot of pervert behaviors foundation be pointed at easily. john Singletons 1991 film Boyz N the Hood in the context on American sub cultural deviance theories presents aspects of many of the major theories of deviance (labeling, strain, social control, and first derivative association).(Leblanc, 1998, p. 64) The major characters Tre, tres father, Ricky and Doughboy represent different forms of deviance and control. Tres father is a command because he infinitely tells eitherone around him to start thinking. Tre is different than the former(a) mess in the neighborhood because his father has raise him differently. The sodaaism tries to instill good set in his son so he can succeed an d not correct to the deviate norms of his surroundings. Tres dad is overly active in social control. In one scene after the sit exam Tres dad takes Tre and Ricky off to incur something.He brings them to a billboard in the neighborhood and asks the dickens boys what they understand from it. eon he explains to them what gentrification a small clump starts to surround his harangue like speech. He says, They want us to kill ourselves the proscribeddo port you can destroy a mountain you take their ability to barf themselves. This reflects the opening lines of the movie and the death monetary value concerning African Americans. One of out of every twenty-one Black males result be slay in their lifetimemost impart die at the custody of another Black male. The dad wants the plenty in the neighborhood to menses kill each other because youre doing on the aloneton what they want you to do, you go through to think near your prox. This reflects the control guess an d how the dad manages to bound a strong human relationship with his son. The control opening states that the closer slew ar to each other and the stronger their adherences they will be less likely to change. Continuously throughout the movie the dad talks to his son active everything and tries to teach him along the way. some other example in the movie is when the dad gives him advice about not having children at a young person age.He says that any guy can a lease a child but raising one makes him a man. Also after the SAT exam the dad tells the boys how the exam is biased and maths is the completely section that is universally innocent in the exam. The father son relationship is not there when it comes to Tres fri arrests. Ricky and Doughboy are half(a) blood fellows and there father is never around. Doughboy is the abnormal in the family whereas Ricky tries to stay outside(a) from trouble. The control scheme states that commonwealth who have stronger bonds ar e less like to deviate compared to people who have weaker bonds.The boys behavior and their future can be discover and canvas by both the control conjecture and the labeling surmise. When their lives are analyzed according to the labeling theory it is easy to see why the dickens fellows act in a proper(postnominal) way. The labeling theory states that of people are cal direct something or told who they are often enough shall get going to act in that manner. (Leblanc, 1998, p. 64) For example, if a child is labe guide a bully in school level(p) if he has do the act one and continues to be called a bully it is quite likely that he will label to or aline to the label that has been given to him.On the other overtake if a person is told that they can outperform over and over again they will most like live up to those expectations. In the movie this contrast is observed between Ricky and Doughboy. Their mother continuously puts Doughboy bulge and praises Ricky. You aint sh it, you dont do shit, and you aint never going to amount to shit, is one of the remarks passed by the mother to Doughboy. When we observe the first half of the movie which depicts the boys childhood it is apparent that Doughboy was not al ways a deviant. When the boys in the hood, paronomasia int poleed, take outside Rickys football Doughboy is appalled.The child but wants his brother to have his ball pricker. He stands up for his brother and he gets beaten up. Because of his personality figure he gets into trouble. Eventually his mother starts putting him down because he is continuously acquire into trouble. The labeling theory suggests that this would explain why he was in jail most of his life, deals drugs, kills people, and is finally murdered in the end of the movie. This theory also suggests that the encouragement of his mother led Ricky to become a football star and receive a scholarship to USC. (Leblanc, 1998, p.64)In the end of the movie, Ricky dies when other guys from the neighborhood shoot him and Doughboy dies two weeks after avenging his brothers death. The boldness can be made that Doughboy was murdered by the people connected to his brothers murderers. When he is young he gets into trouble and starts going down a slippery slope because he defends his brother and when he gets old he dies toilsome to avenge his brothers death. When the lives of Ricky and Doughboy are observed according to the control theory we can have an even founder understanding of why Ricky is the polar glacial of his brother.The control theory talks about the affect of strong bonds between people. Ever since Ricky is particular he has had a stronger bond with the people around him. Although both the boys fathers are never present Ricky has a football that his father gave to him. When they grow up Ricky has a stronger bond with his mama and his mom favors him more. Ricky also has a girlfriend who lives in his hall and a son. Ricky has indicates to not deviate. Although his premarital sexual relationship and having a child before marriage is a type of deviation he does not conform to the deviations that his brother does.At the end of the movie when Ricky is jobless and Doughboy is talking to Tre he says that he has no one, no brother and no mom. He says that his mom never loved him and it was all about Tre. Doughboy and his weak bonds with the people around him led him to deviate more often. Both the labeling theory and the control theory help us understand the lives of the brothers and how they behaved. Tres father is one of the controllers in the movie and his portrayal of a Black man who thinks is presented respectfully. He continuously teaches his son to think and stay away from deviant behavior.After Rickys death he explains to Tre that he should not go out to seek revenge because that is exactly what the carcass is designed to do. He tells his son that if he wants to shoot a man he should shoot his dad first and that it is also s tupid to loose Tre over a stupid battle. His message to Tre and everyone else has always been to stop cleanup spot each other and be a life that is better. With his guidance Tre is one of the characters that is alive at the end of the movie and goes to college. Although Ricky gets accepted and has a scholarship he dies before he can even embark upon the opportunity.The other controller is Tres mother. Ever since he was young he has taught him to stick to his word and that there would be consequences if he wouldnt. He ends up life-time with is father because he has gotten into a iron out at school and his acts have been a breech of contract with his mom. When we compare Tres and Doughboys childhood they were both knotty in confrontations and physical fights as young children. The only thing different was that Tre had a set of parents who were controllers and instilled strong bonds with each other. The law officer is also a controller in the movie except he presented cynically.He believes that everyone in the neighborhood is a deviant and should die. When he comes to Tres house after a break in he tells them that the burglar should have been shot and that he shouldnt have gotten away. He is exceedingly cynical and does not believe in the betterment of the people in the neighborhood. When Tre is old(a) he is pulled over by the selfsame(prenominal) police officer although he hasnt broken the law. The officer pulls him over out of spite and salutary to see if he has been drinking, possesses any drugs or weapons. There are many acts of neutralization present in the movie when the deviants try to justify their behavior.At the sermon in front of the billboard that Tres dad gives about people sidesplitting themselves over stupid things and conforming to the schema a few guys listening in try to defend their actions. They say that if soul messes with them or causes any trouble they are not going to get anything and take action. They say that they will not tolerate any sort of misconduct or even an attitude problem and revivify to killing if they need to. This is later reflected in the movie when Ricky gets murdered over an argument. At a party he gets shoved in the arm so he starts yell at the other guys.Those guys are stimulate away initially by Doughboys ordnance but then they come back to kill Ricky. This shows that whatever Tres dad says has a lot of truth to it and that when a deviant deviates he doesnt see it as a deviation. He sees it as an act of neutralization. He is simply standing up for himself and defending him self. He is simply justifying his cause. The quality of a deviant is that he fights back each time. Every little thing such as the design of an eye or an argument is reason enough to kill someone. Sometimes people deviate intentionally because they want to bring up people wrong.Sometimes people deviate because they are living up to their labels. Sometimes people deviate because they dont realise any better. Tres insistence on having sec with his Catholic girlfriend can be considered deviant behavior because he is going against what his parents have told him. His girlfriend gets wroth with him but he does not rectify to further deviations. Doughboy gets labeled a deviant from an early age but he never fights back to clear the misconception. He continuously involves himself in activities that live upto his reputation.This film seeks to normalize society. The message at the end of the movie is to stop and to create peace. The movie shows a real life personation of what happens in the hood and how it hurts everyone living in it. It sheds light on how their behavior is poignant them negatively. They show all aspects of particular social trends in order to create awareness among the people. The movie asks questions about traditional ways of controlling a form of deviance when it highlights the role of the police officer and the kids who try to fight deviance.The police officer just wan ts to kill everybody and is an extreme cynic and Ricky believes that the only way to stop another deviant is by acting the same way with him. The police officer hopes that the guy who broke in the house should have been dead and that everyone on the street is a gangster. all in all throughout the movie deviant behavior can be clearly spotted. The only way to normalize deviant behavior is to understand why it happens and how it happens. Young kids like Ricky all over the world end up committing crimes because of the weak bonds they have.They end up deviating from societal norms because they have been labeled a specific way. They already have a reputation and they feel that they cannot get away from it. They accept what society has labeled them and give into the norms of deviation. Kids who have stronger bonds with family and society on the other hand can easily independent from any childhood delinquencies they were a part of like Tre. People should understand that the labeling theo ry is not always negative and that it can be used to boost peoples morale and have plus outcomes.This happened for Ricky because of the continuous support from his mom but in the end he did not live to see any of it. This is why the control theory should be implant along with the labeling theory in a positive way. When people realize the grow of the problem only then will they be able to fix it. The movie is a message to all the people of America to realize what happens in the accredited neighborhoods and how to eradicate the problem. The message is to stop killing each other and to promote peace.ReferencesAggleton, P. (1987). Deviance. parliamentary procedure now. London Tavistock.Leblanc, Lauraine (1998, January). Observing Reel career Using Feature Films to Teach ethnographical Methods. Teaching Sociology, 1, Retrieved June 16, 2008, from http//www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/stable/1318681?seq=3Singleton, J (1990). Boyz N the Hood. (movie)