AC2.1

Question 1

What is social control?

Answer 1

involves persuading or compelling people to conform to society’s norms, laws and expectations.

Question 2

What are the internal forms of social control?

Answer 2

• moral conscience or superego
• Tradition and culture
• Internalisation of social rules and mortality
• Rational ideology

Question 3

What is involved in moral conscience and superego?

Answer 3

Freuds psychoanalytic theory shows we conform to society’s expectations and obey its rules because our superego tells us to.
Superego forms part of our personality - it tells us what is right and wrong and inflicts guilt feeling on us if we fail to do as it urges.
The superego allows us to exercise self control and behave in a socially acceptable way

Question 4

What is a weakly developed superego?

Answer 4

less guilt about anti social behaviour and less inhabitation to act on aggressive and selfish urges

Question 5

What is a harsh and unforgiving superego?

Answer 5

creates deep-seated guilt leading to compulsive reoffending in order to be punished

Question 6

What is involved in traditions and culture?

Answer 6

Your own traditions, customers or norms may ensure you conform to the rules, we may accepts these as part of our identity.
Sometime it is your upbringing that ensures you do not break the rules
Or religion or culture e.g. Muslim tradition of fasting during Ramadan.

Question 7

What is involved in the internalisation of social rules and morality?

Answer 7

This creates a sense of right and wrong, it forms part of our integrity. Both our superego and the traditions we follow become part of our inner self and personability.

Question 8

What 2 ways does our inner self and personality start as things outside of us?

Answer 8

1. either as our parents rules and values in the case of the superego
2. or as those of our culture or social groups in the case of tradition.
   In both cases we internalise these rules through the process of socialisation - whether from our parents or from wider social groups and institutions such as religions school and peer groups.

Question 9

How does socialisation cause social control?

Answer 9

Society rules and moral codes become our own personal rules and moral codes as a result, we conform willingly to social norms.

Question 10

What is involved in rational ideology?

Answer 10

internalised ideas and beliefs about what is right and wrong. Conscience feeling of guilt and worry help us to make decisions about whether to follow the rules or not - fear of being shunned/ ostracised.

Question 11

How do agencies cause social control?

Answer 11

Apply pressure by persuading or compelling members of society to conform/behave in certain ways.
Organisations or institutions that impose rules upon use to make us behave in certain ways

Question 12

What sanctions can agencies issue?

Answer 12

Negative sanctions - punishments which deter undesirable behaviour
Positive sanctions - punishments which are rewards that encourage good behaviour.

Question 13

How does sanctions link to Skinners operant learning theory?

Answer 13

Links to the behaviour reinforcement, punishment deters undesired behaviour and rewards encourage acceptable behaviour.

Question 14

How do the police apply social control?

Answer 14

Have powers to stop, search, arrest, detain and question suspects - through PACE 1984

Question 15

How do the CPS apply social control?

Answer 15

Assess evidence provided by the police and decide whether to prosecute the suspect and what the charges will be.

Question 16

How do judges and magistrates apply social control?

Answer 16

Have powers to bail in the accused or remand in custody and sentence the guilty to a range of punishments.

Question 17

How do prisons apply social control?

Answer 17

Can detain prisoners against their will and punish them for misbehaviour in prison.

Question 18

How do probation apply social control?

Answer 18

Have power to use coercion and ensure that offenders comply with the order and any terms such as residence and reporting.

Question 19

What is coercion and why do agencies use it?

Answer 19

Involves the use of threat of force to make someone do or stop doing something. Forces may include physical or psychological violence or other forms of pressure.
The negative sanctions of the CJS are examples of coercion e.g. sending someone to prison for stealing is a form of coercion aimed at preventing further offending.

Question 20

What is fear of punishment?

Answer 20

It is a form of coercion because it involves the threat that force will be used against you, if you do not obey the law. Right realists say that the fear of getting caught and punished is what ensures social control - fear acts as a deterrent. (individual or general)

Question 21

What is Travis Hirschi social bond theory (1969)?

Answer 21

Believes that people must form social bonds to prevent criminalisation and he argue that delinquent acts occur when an individuals bond to society is weak or broken.

Question 22

What are the 4 bonds to society from the social bond theory?

Answer 22

1 . Attachment - to friends and family, more attached we are the more we care about their opinion, the more we will respect their norms and less likely we will be to break them.
2. Commitment - to convectional goals such as education, good job, marriage etc, more we are committed the more we risk losing by getting involved in crime, so less likely to conform.
3. Involvement - in law abiding activities such as studying, sports etc. Means the less time/opportunity and desire to get involved in criminal laws.
4 . Belief - In society’s values such as honesty and obeying the law, it means we are less likely to break it.

Question 23

What is Gottfredson and Hirschi parenting theory?

Answer 23

argued that low self control and delinquency is often due to poor socialisation, lack of parental discipline and parental supervision. Other control theorists put forward similar ideas.

Question 24

What did Riley and Shaw argue that parents should do?

Answer 24

• be involved in teenagers lives and spend time with them
• take an interest in their schooling and friends
• show strong disapproval of criminal behaviour and explain the consequences of offending.

Question 25

What is Walter Reckless containment theory (1967)?

Answer 25

he argued that we can resit committing crimes due to our internal and external containment

Question 26

What is a internal containment?

Answer 26

Effective socialisation can develop strong internal values that help with self control to resist temptation to offend

Question 27

What is a external containment?

Answer 27

Parenting discipline, control by social groups and the law of society.