2.1 Flashcards
1
Q
Define the term social control
A
organisations or bodies of people put into place rules or regulations for people to follow to ensure society runs smoothly by preventing criminal and deviant behaviour
2
Q
What is formal social control?
A
social control carried out by authorised organisations and bodies such as police officers, courts and work places e.g. arresting someone or sentencing. Often implemented through statutory and judicial processes
3
Q
What is informal social control?
A
social control excerised by society without stating any rules or laws. It’s expressed through norms and customs. Performed by informal agents on their own in an unofficial capacity e.g. people demonstrating disaproval for certain actions and behaviours through shame, sarcasm, criticism and ridicule.
4
Q
What is internal social control?
A
- internal forms of social control include things such as the conscience regulating behaviour
- people internalise thoughts in their head to decide whether right and wrong fits in with what the conscience states
- conscience is what people feel is accepted forms of behaviour so inernal social control helps regulate behaviour through self control, in accordance with society’s accepted form of behaviour
5
Q
How does Freud’s psychoanalytic Theory, moral conscience of superego be applied to internal social control?
A
- personality made of id, ego and superego
- superego states what is right and wrong and makes people feel guilty if they do not behave as they should
- superego develops in early socialisation within the family and as it develops people have more self control and behave in socially accepted ways
- everyone has a conscience that has formed differently due to superego, rational ideology, tradition and internalisation of social rules and morality
6
Q
What is rational ideology and how is it formed?
A
- an idea or belief to achieve social control. Conscience causes person to feel guilt, anxiety, worry, which guides individual to reach a solution or follow rules and laws
- conscience internalises right and wrong behaviour which could develop through upbringing, friends, teachers, friends etc
- individual may feel worried/guilty about doing a certain action/behaviour, whic in turn may guide them to make a law-obiding choice
- Clark and Cornish 2006) suggest criminality is often a ‘rational choice’ where ‘crimes are puposive acts committed with the intention of benefitting the offender’
7
Q
What is Tradition and how does it stop an individual from committing crime?
A
- the tradition/culture someone is surrounded by is linked to the way an individual gets internal set of moral principles
- traditions may be our own traditions, customs or norms that ensure rule conformity
- may also be religion/culture/upbringing (especially parental authority) that ensures rule/law conformity e.g. Ten Commandments in Chritianity and Judaism
- traditions, religion, upbringing people are raised with is linked to conscience
8
Q
What is ‘internalisation of social rules and morality’ and how does this stop an individual from committing crime?
A
- internalisation of social rules and morality refers to working out the right thing to do in a situation, meaning individual knows what is right and wrong based on social values
- e.g. you are about to reach for birthday cake and realise there is only one piece left so conscience may decide to either ask if anyone else wants it or hold back. This is an internalisation as individual is thinking about what the best action to take is
9
Q
What are is external social control?
A
- external sources of control in society to ensure people cooperate and are put into place from childhood through operant conditioning to make children behave at school and at home (reward and punishment to positively reinforce good behaviour)
- external pressures persuade society to conform to rules/laws
10
Q
Outline the agencies of social control in the CJS
A
- Police stop search, arrest, detain and question suspects
- judges/magistrates bail the accused or remand them in custody and sentence the guilty to punishments
- prison service detains prisoners against their will for the duration of their setence and can offer further punishments such as solitary confinement
- CPS can charge a suspect and prosecute them in court
- probation ensures offender completes all rehabilitation processes where appropriate
11
Q
How can external forms of social control be linked to operant conditioning?
A
- agencies of social control use negative sanctions in the form of punishments e.g. cutodial sentence
- use positive sanctions in the form of rewards to impose social control
- use reinforcement in the sense that punishment discourages undesirable behaviours and rewards encourage acceptable behaviour
12
Q
What are some examples of external social control?
A
- sanctions/punishments/ deterrance in the form of panalty notices, cautions, arrests, fines, custodial sentences, curfews, tagging (used in CJS but also in schools and employment
- parents imposing rules for child protection
- teachers/schools set out disciplinary policies to regulate behaviour and conduct of children
- employers may take disciplinary action against an employee for misconduct/inappropriate behaviour
- agencies often give negative sanctions for bad behaviour e.g. prison/fine
- agencies often give positive and negative sanctions e.g. rewards system/gold stars/sweets (operant conditioning)
13
Q
Explain coercion as a form of external social control
A
- coercion is the use of force to make people conform, through physical or psychological ways and may be threatened or actual
- e.g. suspended sentence which is a sentence that involves the individual being free but they know they will go to prison if they commit further offences during this period. This is a deterrance sentence used by courts
- some countries use physical restraints/ punishments to force compliance
- in UK, coercion may be being detained or imprisoned
14
Q
Explain fear of punishment as a form of social control
A
- fear of punishment links to coercion as it aims to achieve social control in society
- if a crime is committed, things happen against the will of the offender e.g. arrest, trial, punishment
- a right realist would argue the thought/threat of going to prison is a deterrance to not commit crime. Also argue crime would be a lot worse without fear of punishment.
- fear of punishment called deterrence
15
Q
What is Individual deterrence?
A
punishment imposed on offenders in order to deter or prevent that INDIVIDUAL from committing further crimes e.g. suspended prison sentence or conditional discharge where there are other more serious consequences for further offending such as imprisonment.
16
Q
What is general deterrence?
A
- prevents OTHERS from committing similar crimes
- e.g. lengthy prison sentence/heavy financial penalty allows others to see consequences for certain actions and are deterred from committing the same offence. This is an example of vicarious punishment which is a form of operant conditioning
- policies promote this known as ‘getting tough on crime’
- e.g. Mandatory Minimums, where a life sentence given for murder, 7 years for 3rd drug offence, 3 years for 3rd burglary
- e.g. Three strikes and you’re out, where a 3rd conviction for violent crime likely to be life sentence (USA)
17
Q
What is the aim of control theories?
A
To consider why people DON’T commit crime, in terms of what is preventing them from committing crime and keeps them conforming to societal rules, instead of asking why people do commit crime.
18
Q
Outline the Social Bond Theory (Hirschi, 1969)
A
- control theory that placed emphasis on social influences. suggested everyone is subject to ‘animalistic impulses’ and so are all ‘capable of committing criminal acts’
- suggestes people more likely to be deviant when their ‘bond to society is weak or broken’ and those with ‘good social bonds’ less likely to commit crime
- 4 key elements to theory include attachment, commitment, involvement and belief
19
Q
Outline the 4 elements of the Social Bond Theory (Hirschi 1969)
A
- Attachment refers to the attachment of individual to others. If individual cares about others, their opinions of them and reactions to their actions, they’re less likely to commit crime
- Commitment refers to fact that if we are committed to someone/something such as a job in society, less likely to commit crime as this would risk lowering social standing with others
- Involvement refers to being involved in conventional activities such as sports, means person less likely to commit crime
- Belief, which refers to the fact that if people socialised to believe committing crime is wrong then likely to believe this and not break law. Many people attached to cultural goals and conventions in society, which may deter many from committing crime due to fear of disaproval. People tend to want to fit in so take part in charity events, rather than commit crime.
20
Q
Outline the Containment Theory (Walter Reckles, 1967)
A
- primarily focusses on looking at reasons why many people obey the law, with the pulls/pressures of society
- stated many people are immune or resistant to pulls towards crime due to factors (containment)
- Inner containment comes from family and upbringing that forms our self concept of crime, goal orientation and norm retention
- Outer containment is influences from social, peer groups or the law
- Reckless stated a combination of inner psychological containment and external social containments stop people from deviating from norms and committing crime.
21
Q
Assess the limitations faced by prisons in achieving social control
A
- high rate of recidivism. Many reoffend after release, suggesting prisons often fail to rehabilitate or deter people from future crime. Due to negative prison environment that reinforces behaviour and lack of adequate rehabilitation programmes
- prisonization process, involving inmates adapting to prison subculture so adopt criminal attitudes, increasing likelihood of reoffending
- expensive+overcrowded so hard to provide education, training and healthcare which can undermine rehabilitation effort and increas tensions within inmates. Costs can divert resources away from other social control programmes such as community based programmes (may be more effective at crime prevention)
- sites of violence and disorder in form of gang activity, drugs, assaults commonplace which is dangerous and undermines social control efforts
22
Q
Discuss how external forms of social control may have an impact on crime statistics
A
- policing strategies and government policies and other forms of external control can significantly influence crime stats
- e.g. increased policing in high crime areas may increase recorded crime as more detected even if actual crime level the same/decreases
- ‘zero tolerance’ policing focusses on aggressively enforcing minor offences may increase crime stats for bringing more minor offences to CJS
- policy changes such as decriminalisation of certain drug offences can lead to decrease in crime stats as no longer criminal
- external social control impacts crime stats by influencing detection rates, definitions of crime and reporting practices
23
Q
Evaluate the effeciveness of social control inside prisons
A
- effective: confinement prevents committing crime so achieves incapacitation. strict rules whilst incapacitated and threat of sanctions such as loss of priviledges can deter some inmates from disruptive beh.
- effective: surveillance such as CCTV can monitor inmate activity and detect potential issues
- Ineffective: overcrowding strains resources and makes it hard to maintain adequate supervision, leading to increased violence and intimidation that can challenge staff authority
- ineffective: prisonization process involving inmates adapting to norms ans values of prison subculture can undermine rehabilitation efforts and make it hard for inmates to integrate into mainstream society when released.
- ineffective: inconsistent/abusive treatment of inmates from staff can fuel resentment and resistence, or lack of staff training makes it hard to manage beh.
- ineffective: goals of social control in prisons often conflicts with goals of rehabilitation. strict disciplinary measures and security focus will not conduct positive change. prisons need to balance security and rehab and provide inmates with opportunities to develop skills and attitudes for release.
24
Q
Describe two environmental measures used by agencies to achieve social control
A
- improved street lighting. Increasing visibility in public spaces, agencies aim to deter crime by reducing opportunities for offenders to commit crime undetected
- designing public spaces to discourage antisocial behaviour. Removing benches that attract loitering, CCTV surveillance to monitor activity and deter unwanted behaviour in public spaces
25
Q
Using examples, explain what is meant by internal forms of social control
A
- refer to the processes by which individuals regulate their own behaviour based on internalised values, beliefs and moral principles
- individuals conform to social norms because they believe it’s the right thing to do, rather than only due to external pressures such as laws/police
- e.g. someone may choose not to steal because they believe stealing is morally wrong, even if they knew they would not get caught
- e.g. individual chooses to help a stranger in need because they believe in being kind even if there is not expectation of a reward.
26
Q
Explain the role of police in social control
A
- key role in maintaining social control in society
- primarily enforce laws, amintain order and prevent crime
- law enforcment involves investigating crimes, apprehending offenders and gathering evidence for prosecution. Holding people accountable for actions, police deter others from committing same crime and reinforce social norms
- maintaining order involves managing public spaces, responding to disturbances and resolving conflicts to ensure public safety and prevent escalation into more serious offences. This could be crowd control at public events
- crime prevention involves proactive strategies to reduce opportunities for crime, such as targetted patrols in high crime areas, community policing initiatives and providing crime prevention advice to public. Patrol areas known for crime for public safety
- also act as visible symbols of authority, detrring potential offenders through their presence and reassuring public
