AC 2.1 forms of social control

• What is social control?

  • Persuading or compelling people to conform to society’s norms, laws and expectations
  • For society to function smoothly people need to behave more or less as others expect them to
• What are internal forms of social control?

  Controls over our behaviour that come from within ourselves
• What does Moral conscience or superego have anything to do with internal social control?

  • According to Freud’s psychodynamic theory, we conform to society’s expectations and obey its rules because our superego tells us to, it tells us what i right and wrong and also inflicts guilt if we fail to do as it urges
  • Develops through early socialisation within the family as a sort of internalised nagging parent telling us what to do
• What does tradition and culture have to do with internal social control?

  The culture we belong to becomes part of us through socialisation and we come to accept its values, norms and traditions as part of our identity
• What is internalisation of social rules and morality?

  • Both our superego and the traditions we follow become part of our inner self or personality, but both of them start outside of us
  • Socialisation: how we internalise these rules, through our parents or wider societal institutions, society’s rules and moral codes become our own
  • ‘Rational ideology‘: describes the fact that we internalise social rules and use them to tell us what is right and wrong
• What are external forms of social control?

  Aims to ensure we conform to society’s expectations and keep to its rules through agencies of social control
• What are agencies of social control?

  • Organisations or institutions that impose rules on us in an effort to make us behave in certain ways
  • They can give negative and positive sanctions, negative are for those who break the rules and are punishments whereas positive are for those who conform And are rewards
• How does the criminal justice system work as external social control?

  • It contains multiple agencies of social control such as:
  • The police: have power to stop, search, arrest, detain and question suspects
  • CPS: can charge suspects and prosecute them in court
  • Judges and magistrates: have power to bail the accused or remand them in custody, they can also sentence the guilty
  • The prison service: can detain prisoners against their will for the duration of their sentence
• What is coercion?

  • The use of threat or force to make someone either do or stop doing something
  • Can be physical or psychological violence or other forms of pressure
• How does fear of punishment work as external social control?

  • Fear of punishment is a form of coercion because it involves the threat that force will be used against you if you don’t obey the law
  • Some theorists argue that fear of being caught and punished is what ensures many would-be criminals continue to obey the law
• What is control theory?

  • Asks the question why do people obey the law
  • People conform because they are controlled by their bonds to society which keep Them from deviating
• What are the four elements of an individual’s bond to society?

  • Attachment
  • Commitment
  • Involvement
  • Beliefs
• What is attachment in control theory?

  The more attached we are to others, the more we care about their opinion of us and the more we will respect their norms and be less likely to break them
• What is commitment in control theory?

  The more committed we are to a conventional lifestyle, the more we risk losing by getting involved in crime so the more likely we are to conform
• What is involvement in control theory?

  The more involved we are in conventional law-abiding activities the less time and energy we will have for getting involved in criminal ones
• What are beliefs in control theory?

  If we have been socialised to believe it is right to obey the law, we are less likely to break it
• What is the role of parenting in control theory?

  • Creating bonds that prevent young people from offending
  • Parents should:
  • Involve themselves in their teenagers lives and spend time with them
  • Take an interest in what they do at school and how they spend time with friends
  • Show strong disavowal of criminal behaviour and explain the consequences of offending
• What does Walter Reckless point to?

  • The importance of parenting and socialisation
  • We have psychological tendencies that can lead to criminality, but effective socialisation can provide internal containment by building self-control to resist the temptation to offend
• What to feminists use control theory for?

  • To explain women’s low rate of offending
  • Patriarchal society controls females more closely, making it harder for them to offend