Law and Society Flashcards
What is Law and Society split into?
-Intro
-Society/Law influencing society
-Consensus theory
-Conflict theory
-Labelling theory
-Right/Left realism
What would you write for intro?
-The main role of law is defined as bring within society to create a clear set of laws that are easily accessible to everyone
-Rudolf Von Jhering: Law is a means of ordering society, in which there are many competing interests which require regulation
-The role of society is very important within english law, the law must meet needs of modern society. So citizens within society can and have influenced many laws.
What two things are Society influencing the law?
-Public Morals
-Media
Explain/example/evaluate how Public morals influence law?
-Morals within society change over time. Law should therefore be updated to follow changing moral opinion
-Example: Laws on Abortion: Abortion Act 1967
-RCN v DHSS: Judges changed the law to match moral opinion of society surrounding abortion, thus allowing nurses to perform part of the procedure, meaning abortions more widely available
-AO3: This is good as law should be modernised to a changing society, however unable to represent a pluralistic society, and the law changes slowly so often unable to keep up with modern societal opinions.
Explain/example/evaluate how media influences law?
-Media is a great influence of law change, highlights issues in politics and brings public opinion to Government attention through media coverage. Creates awareness and weighs in on campaign for law change
-Example: Stan Cohen, media can create moral panics and sensationalising can lead to hysteria and law change
-Dangerous Dogs Act 1991: Parliament created this in response to moral panic, criticised as rushed and contained many errors
-AO3:Moral panics can affect law change which is bad, as these moral panics often don’t reflect real current issues in society, so by changing law in response to hysteria wrong laws come out, and media is filtered and not representative/unbiased
Which two ways does Law influence society?
-Formal social control
-Informal social control
Explain/example/evaluate formal social control?
-Formal social controls are put in place by Parliament and the Government. These are acts of Parliament which set out legal rules. Police, Judiciary and prison service formally enforce the law
-Roscoe Pound: Law is a tool to engineer and structure society, legal rules create framework for better society
-Sentencing guidelines: These indicate the sentence that should be given to each crime and direct judiciary on appropriate sanctions to give to those who will break the law
-AO3: How sentencing guidelines control and influence society: Deterrence, Prison sentences actuallydeter? (53% of adult offenders reoffend within 2 years of release)
Explain/example/evaluate informal social control?
-This occurs through family, peer groups, education and local community/ religion/ societal groups. These groups enforce law in an informal way by creating social norms, values and customs that effectively teach citizens to conform to law as opposed to break it.
-Example: Behaviour policies in school, certain behaviour in schools not tolerated and can be punished through detentions and more. Teach students of morally acceptable courses of action
-AO3: Are these effective? No formal threat of punishment, can actually be a threat to law in modern society, if parents teach kids to not trust or respect authorities like police
What are the four theories?
-Consensus theory
-Conflict theory
-Labelling theory
-Realism theory
Explain/evaluate consensus theory?
-Emile Durkheim believes society influences law, law is based on a general consensus of what is acceptable and unacceptable, public consensus must be granted for law to be changed.
-AO3: Doesn’t consider pluralism, Relies on socialisation of acceptable and unacceptable behaviours
Explain/evaluate conflict theory?
-Karl Marx states society is in constant state of conflict/competition over limited resources. Law is therefore a tool to allow social control, which upper class use to dominate lower class
-AO3: Law v Citizen (assumes law always against citizens, but ELS advanced, Article 6 right to all citizens)
Theory is over generalised (more than two classes in society)
Explain/evaluate labelling theory?
-Howard Saul Becker thinks the behaviour of citizens is defined by law not societal attitudes, an act only becomes deviant once it has been labelled as criminal. This then creates unlawful citizens who commit the acts, if similarities arise = stereotypes created
-AO3: Theory believes that law influences society, theory encourages crime in society (if people expected to, self fulfilling prophecy will increase crime rate), theory ignores why people commit crimes
What are the two divisions of realism theory?
-Left realism
-Right realism
Explain/evaluate left realism…
-This argues that cause of crime is society itself and other economic factors such as poverty, thinks that to combat crime within society, we have to address reasons why people commit crimes
-Argues we need to use education, rehabilitation and a reduction in social inequality
-AO3: Benefits offenders (Tackles root causes and early intervention is used)
Idealistic not realistic (There can’t realistically be an equal division of power across society, communism is the alternative but communist states not crime free)
Social inequality is the reason for crime (under this theory, those who face inequality should commit more crime, so women should commit more crimes, but in 2022 96% prison population male)
Explain/evaluate right realism…
-Believes people don’t commit crimes because of societal rules but people have their individual reasons to commit crimes, usually self-gratification. Argues we must get tough on crime to prevent it, by giving more harsh sentences that will deter
-AO3: Do harsh punishments reduce crime? (Don’t take root cause
Doesn’t consider why people commit crimes (for example, opportunist crimes, thrill crimes, property offences, lots of societal factors that affect)
Theory suggests aim of deterrence and retribution are best to tackle individual reasons (retribution and deterrence don’t work, adults who spent less than 12 months in prison are 58% more likely to reoffend, 45% of prisoners reoffend within a year of being released from prison)
