Criminology In Boyz N The Hood

The film Boyz N’ the hood follows the lives of a group of young African American men growing up in the hood where poverty, crime and violence are rampant. The three main characters are Darin (Dough boy), Ricky (Darin’s brother), and Tre. In this this film there are many schools of criminology’s that help explain the roots of the criminality portrayed. The positive school which include the concepts of eugenic criminology, ID, Ego, Superego, modeling theory, mesomorph and positive reinforcement I believe explains the criminality in the film exceptionally well. The film begins when their still children and all but Tre has a father figure around. Although Tre’s parents are separated his father Furious takes him in from his mother Reva. There

He is then stopped by his father who talks him to handing over the gun and tells him he’s sorry for his loss but he does not want to lose his son either. Tre listens but still leaves to join his friends to retaliate. Once in the car Tre’s conscience kicks in and asks to be let out which he does. This scene coincides with the concept of psychoanalysis. This concept contains the components of the ID which is the instant gratification principle, the EGO which is the reality principle, and the Superego which is based on ethnical principal. Tre goes through all of them from grabbing the gun, leaving without it to still want retaliation, to when his Superego kicks in and he gets out of the car. The last of the positive school concepts was that of positive reinforcement. Which is basically that of increasing the frequency of approved behavior by adding something desirable. This is apparent throughout the film between Tre and his girl Brandi. She tells him during a scene that she wants to go to college before getting married. This helps keep Tre motivated to go to college also to keep the positive reinforcement of the relationship with Brandi. Which they both ultimately end up going to