unit 1A - topic 5 - formal and informal social control

Question 1

What is social control?

Answer 1

Methods employed to ensure that people comply with society’s rules and regulations, controlling behaviour and keeping deviance to a minimum

Question 2

What is formal social control?

Answer 2

Institutions directly and explicitly controlling the behaviour of individuals, using organised methods to minimise deviance and ensure people comply with rules and regulations

Question 3

Name 7 institutions that exercise formal social control

Answer 3

Police
Legal system
Military
Government
Education
Religion
Workplace

Question 4

How does education carry out formal social control?

Answer 4

Enforces legal requirements (e.g. attendance, behaviour codes, uniform)

Question 5

How does the workplace carry out formal social control?

Answer 5

Uses official disciplinary procedures and codes of conduct

Question 6

How does religion carry out formal social control?

Answer 6

In some families and communities, formal sanctions are imposed by religious organisations (e.g. expulsion, public condemnation)

Question 7

Name 4 examples of formal sanctions

Answer 7

Warnings from the police,
sentences from court,
dismissal from work,
expulsion from school

Question 8

Functionalist view of institutions of formal social control?

Answer 8

😌 positive
By punishing deviant individuals, they maintain VALUE CONSENSUS

Question 9

McPherson report (1999)

Answer 9

Following murder of BLACK TEEN STEPHEN LAWRENCE 1993
Concluded police = institutionally racist

Question 10

what is institutional racism?

Answer 10

The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of the colour culture or ethnic origin

Question 11

Give evidence for institutional racism

Answer 11

Young black men 9 times more likely to be STOPPED and SEARCHED on the white counterparts.
George Floyd murdered by Derek Chauvin.

Question 12

Give the Marxist view on institutions of formal social control

Answer 12

☹️ 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

Question 13

Gordon (1976)

Answer 13

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)

Question 14

What is selective law enforcement?

Answer 14

When law is not applied and enforced to all individuals equally, there is a bias in the legal system

Question 15

What is a total institution?

Answer 15

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 🏫)

Question 16

Goffman (1968)

Answer 16

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

Question 17

What is mortification?

Answer 17

Goffman 1968, sense of self is stripped away and DENIED 🙅‍♂️

Question 18

What do Right Realists believe abt legal system?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What is retributive justice?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What do Right Realists believe about police?

Answer 20

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 🚫

Question 21

What is informal social control?

Answer 21

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 😒✋

Question 22

What do Murray and Herrnstein say about informal social control?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Give examples of informal control

Answer 23

Hey’s (🫵‼️) female cliques using social exclusion.

Oakley’s (🌳) disappointed reactions from parents

Walter’s hypersexualisation: magazines 📰 criticising body types