AC2.1 Flashcards
What is Social Control?
For society to function smoothly, people need to behave more/less as others expect them to.
Social control involves persuading/compelling people to conform to society’s norms, laws and expectations.
What are Internal forms of social control?
These are controls over our behaviour that come from within ourselves – from our personalities and our values.
Factors of social control- Traditions & Cultures
We accept values, norms and traditions as part of our identities
Religion- Individuals follow religious traditions that they have been raised in.
Cultures- The cultures we belong to becomes part of us through socialisation
Upbringing- Especially parental authority, has a major influence on why we abide the law
Traditions- Have conditioned us to know how to behave and not to commit crimes
Factors of social control- Freud’s psychoanalytic theory – the superego
We conform to society’s expectations + obey its rules because our superego tells us to do so
Superego tells us what is right and wrong and inflicts guilt feelings on us if we fail to do as it urges
Its function is to restrain the selfish, ‘animal’ urges of the ID
Factors of social control- Conscience
Our conscience tells us that we should not commit crime as it is wrong
Our conscience is linked to our religion, upbringing and traditions
Your conscience, with feelings of guilt, anxiety or worry from within, guides you to reach a solution or follow laws/rules
Internalisation of social rules and morality
Socialisation- Internalise rules through the process of socialisation (primary and secondary) – parents/social groups/institutions e.g. religion, school, peer groups
Society’s rules and moral codes become our own personal rules and moral code
‘Rational ideology’- We internalise social rules and use them to tell us what is right/wrong
This helps us keep within the law
External forms of social control
As well as internal forms of social control such as our conscience, society has external forms of control that aim to ensure we conform to its expectations and keep to its rules. Society does this through agencies of social control.
Factors of External forms of social control
Agencies in the CJS have powers to use formal legal sanctions on individuals as a way to many them conform the society’s law.
Agencies:
Police- Power to stop, search, detain and arrest
CPS- Charge a suspect and prosecute them in court
Judges & Magistrates- Power to give bail or remand in custody
Coercion- Involves use of threat of force to make someone do something
Fear of Punishment- Only way of trying to achieve social control
Deterrence- Fear of being caught and punished
Albert Bandura
Bandura’s Bobo doll study can link back to social control through deterrence- imitation, social learning theory.
Control Theories- Travis Hirschi
Attachment- We care about the opinions of others, we respect their norms and we are less likely to break them. This can form with parents and teachers.
Commitment- If we aim to follow a conventional lifestyle –the more we have to lose if we take part in criminal activity. More likely to conform
Involvement- The more we take part in conventional, law-abiding activities, the less time and energy we will have for getting engaged in criminal ones
Beliefs- If we have been socialised to believe it is right to obey the law, we are less likely to break it
Control Theories- Parenting
Gottfredson and Hirschi argued that low self-control is a major form of delinquency. They have argued this is the result from poor socialisation and inconsistent or absent parental discipline.
Riley and shaw also found that a lack of parental supervision was an important factor in delinquency.
Parents should: Spend more time with their teenage kids. Take an interest in school and how they spend time with friends. Show disproval of crime and explain the consequences of committing crimes.
Why we abide by the law
Effects of social control- internal and external. Internal- obey the law without being compelled, Freud, Conscience, Superego.
Acquire conscience thorough socialisation, family, religion, traditions as part of our personality. Right and Wrong.
External- General deterrence Bandura- Agencies- coercion- works through fear of punishment.
Control theories- Reckless use both social controls- social containment. Feminists argue women’s low rate of offending is due to external control of patriarchal society
