Deviance is defined as the violation of norms —or rules or expectations. (Henslin, Essentials of Sociology) Social Control is then defined as a group’s formal and informal means of enforcing the norms. (Henslin, Essentials of Sociology) These two concepts become very important when discussing societal behaviors and guidelines. The film entitled Boys N’ the Hood is a notable example that clearly shows deviance and social control put into action. Differential association theory states that, “[P]eople who associate with some groups learn an ‘excess’ of definitions of deviance, increasing the likelihood that they will become deviant.” (Henslin) To put it in layman’s terms: “Tell me who you hang out with and I’ll tell you who you are.” The first example of differential association theory can be seen at the beginning of the film when the boys encounter the “gangsters” near the dead body. There are many factors that could have contributed to their unification as a group. It can range anywhere from age similarities to the fact that they live in the same neighborhood. What ever it may have been this group of men now share common deviant behaviors that are associated with gang affiliations. The following example of differential association theory deals with Ice Cube’s character “Doughboy.” As the years went by and the boys grew up “Doughboy” did not really amount to anything and began to hang out with the wrong crowd. They presented with deviant behavior that society tends to frown upon such as them not going to school, drinking and hanging out with the wrong crowds, gambling, selling drugs, etcetera. This crowd was very similar to the gangsters he and his friends encountered at the beginning of the film. Lastly, due to his relationship ... ... middle of paper ... ...omes with a master’s program. Finally you have Doughboy’s constant strain of being under his athletic, semi-successful, star-player brother Ricky. His mother’s unhealthy admiration and favoring towards one child pushed her other son into the lifestyle that society expects from their ethnic group. Rather than going against the norm, like Ricky was encouraged to, Doughboy went with the norm and became exactly what was expected. All in all, Boyz N’ the Hood seems to be the epitome of deviance and social control examples. The whole premise of the movie relies upon it. Through the various theories such as: Differential association, Control-bond theory, Labeling theory, Rational-choice theory, and the Strain theory Boyz N’ the Hood can be seen through a new scope. Certain aspects of the film become more apparent when compared to just watching the film for entertainment.
The different groups of friends were completely different from each other. There was the group that wanted to be popular and get all the girls with a party, and there was a group that had all the music records that the other needed. That was the group that was trying to make money as well. Both parties also wanted girls. The fact that these two groups had seemingly presented themselves as gangs shows how much they wanted to be apart from each other. The gangs symbolized the separatism of the youth. The catch to their separateness is that they really needed one another to get what they wanted. The one group needed music and the other group needed money. They ended up making a deal with each other, which was conspired by Bacc. The fact that they were able to come together like that symbolized that they really should be together.
The book The Outsiders is the realistic story about this between two very different groups in a town in the United States: the poor Greasers from the east side, and the Socs, whitch is what the greasers call the socials, the richer boys from the other side of the town. Ponyboy Curtis is the narrator of the story, a 14-year-old boy who lives with his two older brothers, Darry and Soda. He is a pretty good athlete and student, but is not treated the same as the richer students at his school. Ponyboy uses to have long hair that he greases back, a symbol of being in the outsider gang. He is unhappy with his situation, because Darry is too protective of him and he always has to be afraid of Socs attacking him.
Deviance is described as “the recognized violation of cultural norms”(Macionis 238). While deviance can include crime, it is not always such. Deviance can mean trying to sneak into a hospital room, desperately searching for someone like the character of Benny in the movie Benny and Joon. Or it could be preforming on the streets for people to watch. Deviance isn’t always a criminal act. The movie Benny and Joon gave several examples of deviant behavior portrayed by the three main characters, Benny, Joon, and Sam.
The film that interested me for this assignment was “Boyz n the Hood”. The movie was about a Los Angeles neighborhood expanding of drug and gang culture, with increasingly tragic results. It was about how one teen had family support to guide him on the right path in life regarding the social problems around him. The other two teens in the film wasn’t as fortunate and fell into the social problems of drugs, violence, and gangs; where one ended up dead.
Boyz N the Hood was a film created to convey an anti-gang message as well as to provide societal members an in-depth look at life in “the hood” so he or she can expand their culturally awareness of identifying societal issues (Stevenson, 1991). Upon the debut of “Boyz N the Hood” violence erupted at theaters across the nation, resulting in multiple shows pulling the film from scheduled showings to alleviate future violent behaviors (Stevenson, 1991). The film profoundly illustrates the realty of the events revealed within the storyline that frequently occur on a daily basis within every impoverish community; however, is overlooked by the individuals who are not directly involved and or affected (Leon-Guerrero, 2016) Children of lower socioeconomic status often are raised in ghetto neighborhoods where they often witness, crime, violence, gang activity, abuse, and drugs (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). Ghetto communities envelop tumultuous cycles of violence and substance abuse creating a pervasive occurrence within the residents of the community. This is prevalent in lower developed communities that unfortunately many children and the youth populace indirectly inherit and sadly conform to, as there are no other means to an end for them (Leon-Guerrero,
The gang wants to bully and demoralize the other people by making them suffer because they are under conflict about the stature of the races in the society. Racism is a base of conflict that has been used to project the conflict theory of deviant behavior in this storyline. This is the structure of deviant theory in this situation.
We’ve gone over many sociological concepts in class, but the three that I believe apply the most to this film are socialization, deviance, and resocialization. “What sort of world is it at
Social deviance is when people who are faced with social norms either choose to conform or to rebel
Deviance has been primarily studied as a disorder of the individual from a medical and psychological standpoint. In assessing deviance as a fundamental component of the human condition, it becomes clear how external social forces and circumstances can increase the likelihood of behavior that does not conform to established social norms. There are four theories that seek to explain the causation of deviance through social forces: strain theory, control theory, social learning theory, and labeling theory. According to strain theory, deviance thrives in the gap between emphasized goals and prescribed methods. People have been socialized to accept key values; However, they do not have access to the approved means of realizing those values,
In the movie “Boyz in the Hood” director John Singleton, paints a clear image of the problems that happen very often in the African American communities. The movie deals with issues such as: the importance of a father in a young man’s life, the ongoing violence of black on black crime, and how black people are put in situations where they are put to fail and not succeed in life.
"...social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction creates deviance, and by applying those roles to particular people and labelling them as outsiders. From this point of view, deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by other of rules and sanctions to an 'offender.' The deviant is one to whom that label has been successfully applied; deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label." Becker (1963)
One direct quote from the film, Crips and Bloods: Made in America that Differential Association Theory can be used to explain is “I joined a gang not only for the protection but for the love for the unity, to be a part of
From a young age, children in are taught to behave in a way that satisfies their society's standards of behavior. Each society has its own standards of behavior, also known as norms. One set of norms may be similar to those of another society, or one society's own set of norms can be the complete opposite of those of another society. But no matter how different or similar, norms are a part a society's core for they are the guidelines to how members are expected to act, and draws a line between what is acceptable and unacceptable. Despite efforts to enforce norms through social control, there are many people who deviate from these norms. Deviance is behavior that violates the standards of a group or society (Witt, 2013, p. 135). The act of deviance comes in many forms that range from harmless acts like a girl shaving her head, or it might be an action that is more extreme like committing murder.
In the same Chicago Tribune article titled, Higher Ambition - For One Former Gang Member, Road To Ordinary Goes Through Hbo, by Television Critic Steve Johnson, Greg Yance is quoted also stating, “You got Vice Lords on this side, Gangsters on that side, and Drug dealers on both sides.” In addition, in his Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology article, Application and Verification of the Differential Association Theory, criminologist and sociologist Donald R. Cressey states, “Persons acquire patterns of criminal behavior in the same way they acquire patterns of lawful behavior-through learning in interaction with other persons. The contents of the patterns presented in association with criminal behavior differ from the contents presented in association with lawful behavior, but the process is the same in both instances.” Based off both Greg and Cressey’s statements, Grey grew up in an environment with crime that lead him to join the Vice lord gang and start dealing drugs. He had no other choice and had to interact with the members of his community, which happened to be gang members and drug dealers. Also, in another one of Donald R. Cressey’s articles titled, Differential Association Theory and Compulsive Crimes, Cressey states, “It is argued by psychiatrists, then, that in cases of "compulsive crime" the actor does