Law and Society Flashcards
Society
A group of people with common territory, interaction and culture.
What would a sociologists call society?
A group of people who live in a defined area, share culture and are often subject to same political authority and culture expectations.
Pluralistic
Members of minority groups maintain cultural traditions.
Positives of pluralistic
Promotes tolerance so people are happier.
Broaden thinking and intelligence.
Traditions and cultures preserved.
Negatives of pluralistic
Groups become more isolated
Lead to power struggles among groups
Less tolerance if difficulty created between groups
Durkheim
Impossible to identify morality which fits all.
Four key roles of law in society
To protect
To ensure common good
To settle arguments and disputes
To persuade people to do the right thing
To protect
Protect from harm through mechanisms of criminal law.
To ensure common good
Provide facilities for all education and health
To settle arguments and disputes
Incorporates our civil legal justice system
To persuade people to do the right thing
Giving nudges through law
Charity gift aid
Social norms
Polite
Queuing
Deviant behaviour
Drug abuse
Theft
Lord Bingham’s eight principles
Abide by domestic and international law.
Punished for crimes set out in law.
All people should be treated equally.
What happened as a result of Gay rights consent protests for under 21’s?
In 2020 aged was lowered.
What happened as a result of Poll tax riots 1990?
In 1993 eventual abolition of Council tax
What happened as a result of the miner’s strike 1984?
Failure to prevent mine closures.
Recent examples of civil unrest
George Floyd protests
Covid protests
Competing interests
Balance of competing interests within society.
Sarah’s law
Girl kidnapped and murdered by known paedophile.
Led to disclosure of whereabouts of paedophiles.
Snowdrop campaign
Gunman killed teachers and school children. Banned most fireman’s.
Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
6 year old girl attacked. Banning of specific breeds.
Criticism of Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
Unfair targeting
No recognition of dog behaviour.
Steph Lawrence
Killed in racist attack
Law changed double jeopardy can be tried twice for same crime.
Social control
Refers to way societies regulate behaviour to maintain order and stability.
Informal social control
Family, local community
Formal social control
Police, Judges
Roscoe pound
Three key functions that protect an individual
What does social control do?
Maintain order
Function without chaos
Police boundaries and deals with deviant behaviour
Social control fail
When the law is weak or enforced without consistency.
Assisted Suicide
CPS does not prosecute many for offences.
Joint enterprise
Removal of gangs.
Joint enterprise example
Gnago
Self defence and householders
Many argue needs to be a balance allowing householders to decide appropriate force when confronting burglars.
What’s the prosecution for self defence and householders?
No prosecution in most circumstances for personal attack in home.
Consent cases
(Brown) (Wilson)
What did Lord Templeman say about consent?
Lord Templeman said issues of policy and public interest should be weighted in balance.
What did Lord Mustil say about consent?
Individuals should be free to live as they want.
Overall on Conflict
Differing opinions about how society views activities that are consensual but offend the public.
Tort
Difficult to decide what party’s interest should take precedent.
Tort cases
Bolton
Miller
(Bolton) (Miller)
Interest of small section of society.
Durkheim
Certain crime in society is healthy but too much is harmful.
Merton
Some institutions within the system can be harmful for society.
Consensus theory
Social change takes place social institutions provided by it.
Absence of conflict creates equilibrium
Conflict theory
Social change is due to constant conflict
What did Marx say?
Main conflict in society is due to wealth and inequality generated by capitalism which encourages greed and self interest .
Access to Justice
Dependent on wealth
Pro Bono cult
Conditional fee agreements
Pro Bono cult case
McLibel
Labelling theory
Labelling creates deviant individuals
Social stigma to certain behaviour can lead to self fulfilling prophecy.
Labelling theory statistics
387,448 Stop and searches on ethnic minorities.
Searches on ethnic minorities three times likely.
Black people 6 times likely to be stopped.
Magistrates and Stereotyping who?
House of Common Select Committee Report October 2016
What’s the argument about Magistrates and Stereotyping?
Diversity in magistrates should be increased, Age profile of magistrates should be rebalanced
Statistics about Magistrates and Stereotyping
53% magistrates Women
89% magistrates White
86% magistrates over 50
Realist approach to law making
Theory we should understand how law is practised in courts
What are realists interested in?
Law rather than society
What laws do they see as important?
Laws enacted by judges
Dissenting judgements in court of appeal, Supreme Court, ECHR
Concerns about Realist approach
Different judges presiding over the case can different judgements.
Interests at expenses of others.
Different judgements case
Brown
