AC 2.1 Flashcards
What is Social Control
Social control involves persuading or compelling people to conform to society’s norms, laws and expectations. Society has various means of achieving control over its members behaviour which we can group into two types of Internal and External Forms of social control
Define Internal control and give three examples
Controls over our behaviour that come from within ourselves such as our own personality and values and they serve as a form of self-control where we conform to society.
Example 1) Moral Conscience
Resolves around Freuds Psychoanalysis theory that we obey the rules of society due to our super ego. According to Freud, the superego is the ‘morality principle’ it develops at the age of 4. It refrains the primal instincts of the ID that would lead us to be selfish and commit anti-social behaviour.
Example 2) Tradition and culture
The culture that we belong in also socialises us to follow society norms, for instance religious traditions to treat everyone with kindness and to be honest will form as a way of social control of conforming people to the rules of society and away from crimes such as theft for instance.
Example 3) Socialisation
the processing of internalising all social rules around us such as in school by teachers and at home by parents and as a result naturally internalising social rules to tell us whats right and wrong.
Define external control and give three examples
Refers to control over our behaviour by third parties such as the criminal justice system
l e.g police.
Example 1) Agencies of Social Control
Third parties that impose rules on us, this could be family, friends and teachers. Agencies of social control can give both positive and negative reinforcement (operant conditioning) encouraging conforming behaviour e.g teacher praise while punishing non-conforming behaviour such as a detention.
Example 2) The Criminal Justice System
contains other agencies of social control however, these agencies have the power to use legal sanctions against individuals who don’t conform such as prison.
These agencies include The police, CPS and Judges.
Example 3) Fear of Punishment
Form of coercion involves the threat that something negative will happen to you if you do not conform to the rules of society such as being arrested, convicted and jailed.
Right realistists claim that this deterrence it what stops many would-be criminals from acting in a criminal way.
What are control theories and give two examples
Theories on why people choose to obey the law rather than break it.
1) Reckless
Suggests we all have psychological tendencies that can lead to criminality but effective socialisation can provide internal containment for these tendencies / urges through our own self control.
Also argues external containment is provided by socialisation such as parenting.
2) Hirschi
Claims that we conform to social rules for four reasons:
Attachment - Our attachment to others knowing they will think less if we were a criminal for instance
Commitment - Our commitment to our job / succeeding. We cant get a degree if we are in jail
Involvement - Involvement in law-abiding activates like studying or sports decrease the time and energy we will have for getting involved in criminality e.g youth clubs.
Beliefs - If we have been socialised to believe we should obey the law we are unlikely to break it.
