Social Control Flashcards
Social control definition
The ways in which society minimises the amount of crime and deviance. Includes intervention strategies as well as consequences for behaviour and ensures that society maintains social order
Formal Social control
The means of social control exercised by the government and other organisations who use law enforcement mechanisms and sanctions, fines & imprisonment to enact social control
Informal social control
Methods that are used my society to put pressure on an individual to behave a certain way without resource resorting to formal control such as the police. For example friends or family
Formal sanctions
A punishment for breaking the law or written rule
Informal sanctions
Ignoring, yelling, intimidating, or nagging
Examples of formal agencies of social control
Police
Law enforcement
Parliament
Examples of informal agents of social control
Teachers
Peers
Parents/careers
Partners
Control theory of crime
Society’s can only exist if there is social order and stability otherwise there will be social chaos. Society’s develop methods of control to ensure order
Hirschi- social bonds theory
Asking what drives people to commit crime, hirschi asks why most people do not commit a crime. The weakness that may cause us to commit crimes
Hirschi 4 social bonds that pull people away from committing crimes
1.belief:people share moral beliefs
2.attachment:people have a stake in conformity and don’t want to Risk losing their life
3.commitments:interested in wishes of family/friends
4.involvement: having no time for crime
Crime
An act that breaks the law
Deviance
An act which goes against the norms of the society in which its committed
