Law And Society Flashcards
What is society?
-Group of people with common territory, interaction and culture
-Law is just one aspect
-Members of a society must come into contact with one another regularly eg communication via language, values like democracy. Share aspects of culture, language and beliefs
What is culture?
-Language, values, beliefs, behaviours and material objects that constitute peoples way of life
-Members of society wont necessarily have the same culture
What is pluralism?
-Form of society in which members of minority groups maintain their independent cultural traditions
-Pluralistic person who believes that the existence of diff types of people in a society is a good thing
What is assimilation?
-Groups seeking to become part of pluralistic society often have to give up many original traditions to fit in
-Grad loss of immigrants language as they assimilate to society and use english
What is multi-culturalism?
-Those from other societies don’t have to lose their indiv markers by becoming part of the mainstream
-People from different societies who blend together and co-habitate in single population
Social control (Rosco Pound)
-List of social-ethical principles to justify making of laws
1. Identify and explain human demands or interests of a given social order
2. They express what the majority of indivs in society want the law to do
3. They guide courts in applying the law
-Indiv, public and social interests overlap, can be put into 3 categories
Consensus Emile Durkheim
-Maintenance of social order
-Society works bc most people successfully socialised into shared values by family and education
-socialisation provides consensus between ppl abt app behaviours and beliefs
Conflict theory Karl Marx
-Society is in a state of perpetual conflict due to competition for limited resources
-social order maintained by domination and power rather than consensus and conformity
-those who wealth and power hold onto it by suppressing poor
Labelling theory Becker
-Most people commit criminal and deviant acts, some caught and punished for it
-labelled as criminals and even tho most ppl commit deviant acts they re regarded as diff from rest of society.
-if labelled criminal and stigmatised then likely to fulfil prophecy and label
Realism holmes
-Understand the law as it is practiced in court, stations and offices, rather than statues or books
-some commit crime bc feel relatively deprived
-media advertising of products raise expectations, pressure to have latest products
-lack opportunity to obtain so resort to crime
What does pluralism mean for law?
-More flexible approaches to issues and debates
-Law to be more diverse to cover all beliefs, cultures, applies better to everyone
-same laws have to factor in diff cultural attitudes, take into account when making law
-law needs to apply equally - no ref to religion in laws
What does assimilation mean for law?
-Law doesn’t need to be as flexible, more narrow and targeted to one common culture.
-If don’t give up certain aspects then still to be apply to this and be flexible
What are some examples of societies within the uk preserving their cultural identity or society?
-Pluralistic societies groups don’t have to give up all beliefs
-Chinese communities celebrating lunar new year
-wearing cultural clothing, foods, celebrating cultural days
Give reasons for pluralism being positive or negative?
-positive: allows for diversity, diff groups of people to live in harmony, may reduce prejudice and discrimination if constantly in contact with each other
-negative: may lead to conflict over differences, still have to give up some beliefs to be treated same and fairly
What are some examples of assimilation within society?
Also examples where assimilation may not have taken place?
-Loss of immigrants language to fit in, eg speak English rather than native language
-may not give up all culture, eg Chinese lunar new year or Indian clothing and religions
Are groups considered more influential than others in pluralistic societies?
-give an example
-No one group considered more influential but powerful informal mechanisms work to suppress or keep out many groups out of political process, neighbourhoods or prevent freedom of expression of values and beliefs.
-only British citizens and resident commonwealth citizens can vote, not immigrants. In Boston, English residents feel that Eastern European immigration is a problem.
-People vandalising mosques in Birmingham, targeting Muslim community
What is the role of law in society (7 key points)
- State must follow both international and domestic law
- Laws must be clear
- Laws must be accessible to all
- Laws must be capable of being enforced by an independent judiciary that protects citizens from any abuse of power by state
- People should not be punished unless a law has been broken
- Everybody should be treated equally with respect for their human rights
- Courts must be accessible and affordable and cases should be heard without excessive delay
What are the 4 key roles that law plays in society?
- To protect people from harm
- To ensure a common good
- Settle arguments and disputes regarding finite resources
- To persuade people to do the right thing
Define social norms
-Common expectations of behaviour
-people who don’t behave according to social norms considered deviant and society show disapproval
