Law Commons^™

Will Boys Just Be Boyz N The Hood? African-American Directors Portray A Crumbling Justice System In Urban America, Justin P. Brooks

Faculty Scholarship

In the 1990s several African-American directors have explored issues of urban justice through stories of children growing up in urban America. Films such as Boyz N the Hood have brought vivid images of disenfranchised and violent neighborhoods and the obstacles involved in growing up in these neighborhoods. These films question whether the criminal justice system works in neighborhoods isolated from both the creation and the protections of the legal system, and where the rules of the criminal justice system sometimes collide with the rules of the neighborhood justice system.