unit 1A - topic 5 - formal and informal social control Flashcards
What is social control?
Methods employed to ensure that people comply with society’s rules and regulations, controlling behaviour and keeping deviance to a minimum
What is formal social control?
Institutions directly and explicitly controlling the behaviour of individuals, using organised methods to minimise deviance and ensure people comply with rules and regulations
Name 7 institutions that exercise formal social control
Police
Legal system
Military
Government
Education
Religion
Workplace
How does education carry out formal social control?
Enforces legal requirements (e.g. attendance, behaviour codes, uniform)
How does the workplace carry out formal social control?
Uses official disciplinary procedures and codes of conduct
How does religion carry out formal social control?
In some families and communities, formal sanctions are imposed by religious organisations (e.g. expulsion, public condemnation)
Name 4 examples of formal sanctions
Warnings from the police,
sentences from court,
dismissal from work,
expulsion from school
Functionalist view of institutions of formal social control?
😌 positive
By punishing deviant individuals, they maintain VALUE CONSENSUS
McPherson report (1999)
Following murder of BLACK TEEN STEPHEN LAWRENCE 1993
Concluded police = institutionally racist
what is institutional racism?
The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of the colour culture or ethnic origin
Give evidence for institutional racism
Young black men 9 times more likely to be STOPPED and SEARCHED on the white counterparts.
George Floyd murdered by Derek Chauvin.
Give the Marxist view on institutions of formal social control
☹️ critical
Law not applied equally to all - SELECTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT ‼️ (espec. social class)
Working class = scapegoat 🐐. Instead we should blame 🫵 INHERENT UNFAIRNESS OF CAPITALISM 🖕🖕🖕, which causes people to do crime out of necessity / rebellion
Gordon (1976)
SELECTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT
Upper/middle class criminals RARELY PROSECUTED (e.g. Grenfell tower): occasional prosecutions hide this.
Working class = SCAPEGOAT. Considered SOCIAL FAILURES + WHOLLY RESPONSIBLE for their crimes (2010 London riots, hedonism and disrespect focussed on rather than context: Duggan, 1500 people prosecuted)
What is selective law enforcement?
When law is not applied and enforced to all individuals equally, there is a bias in the legal system
What is a total institution?
Institution where all areas of life are REGIMENTED and CONTROLLED in the same place: one activity leads to another at a prearranged time ⏰
(e.g. prison, army, boarding school 🏫)
Goffman (1968)
Studied TOTAL INSTITUTIONS.
People in total institutions become INSTITUTIONALISED and can’t deal with life on the outside ☹️
Ppl are MORTIFIED 😐😶🟡: identity and sense of self stripped away - personal items and clothes taken away, prisons have generic uniform + haircut 💇♂️
Norms and values stripped away due to lack of control over actions, and permission needed for basic needs 🚽
Formal social control can have DRAMATIC IMPACT
What is mortification?
Goffman 1968, sense of self is stripped away and DENIED 🙅♂️
What do Right Realists believe abt legal system?
Punishment should be STRICTER.
Criminals should be EXCLUDED FROM SOCIETY (e.g. incarceration, electronic tagging)
Punishment ➡️ protection of public, deterrent for public
e.g. USA retributive justice
What is retributive justice?
USA policy of “three strikes and you are OUT 😐👉🚪
—> three separate convictions means life sentence
—> takes PERSISTENT and SERIOUS offenders out of the system
—> has quadrupled USA prison pop since 90s 🧍♀️🧍🧍♂️x4
What do Right Realists believe about police?
Police 👮♀️ should be STRICTER
New York ZERO TOLERANCE ✋ policy.
HEAVY penalties for TINY crimes.
Crime rate dropped 📉, but it did in other cities too so prob unrelated.
USA has second highest incarceration in 🌎, but has highest rate of crime so NOT WORKING 🚫
What is informal social control?
Institutions and individuals INEXPLICITLY and INDIRECTLY using +tive and -tive sanctions (often UNINTENTIONALLY) to encourage/discourage behaviour of others, controlling their actions
E.g. welcoming smiles ☺️, social exclusion 😒✋
What do Murray and Herrnstein say about informal social control?
People born with biological 🧬 PREDISPOSITION to aggression, impulsivity, temper —> crime and deviance.
INFORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL FROM FAMILY CAN HELP STOP THIS!
Inf. soc. control can help prevent extreme behaviour e.g. crime
Give examples of informal control
Hey’s (🫵‼️) female cliques using social exclusion.
Oakley’s (🌳) disappointed reactions from parents
Walter’s hypersexualisation: magazines 📰 criticising body types
