2.1 Explain Forms of Social Control

• Internal Forms - Moral Conscience (Superego)

  • morality principle, influenced by internalised morals from same-sex parental figure
  • according to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, we conform to societies expectations because our superego tells us to
  • it tells us what is right and wrong, and inflicts guilt if we fail to do as it urges
  • develops through early socialisation in family
  • its function is to restrain selfish, animalistic urges of ID
• Internal Forms - Tradition and Culture

  • culture in which we belong also becomes part of us through socialisation, we come to accept its values, norms, and traditions as part of our identity
  • believers follow religious traditions in which they have been raised
  • conforming to traditions is an important way of affirming one's identity and being accepted as a member of a particular community
• Internal Forms - Socialisation and Rational Ideology

  • both our superegos and the traditions we follow from external factors become part of our inner self or personality
  • we internalise rules through the process of socialisation from either our parents or wider social groups, they then become our own personal rules and moral code
  • rational ideology has been used to describe the fact that we internalise social rules and use them to tell us what is right/wrong
• External Forms - Agencies of Social Control

  • organisations that impose rules on us in effort to make us behave in a certain way, includes family, peer groups, and education system
  • parents might send a naughty child to bed early , friends might shun someone who lies, teacher may issue detentions
  • give positive sanctions to those that do conform, both positive and negative sanctions help to impose social control
• External Forms - The Criminal Justice System

  • contains several agencies, each with power to use formal legal sanctions against individuals
  • the police - have power to stop, search, arrest, detain, and question
  • the CPS - can charge a suspect and prosecute in court
  • judges/magistrates - power to bail accused or remand in custody, sentence guilty to variety of punishments
  • prison service - detains prisoners against their will for duration of their sentence
• External Forms - Fear of Punishment & Coercion

  • involves use of threat or force to make someone do or stop doing something
  • force can be physical or psychological
  • the CJS uses coercion in the form of negative sanctions for criminals, this aims at preventing future offending
• Control Theory

  • Hirschi argues that people conform as they are controlled bu bonds to society
  • Attachment - the more attached we are to people, the more we care about their opinion of use, the more we respect their norms, less likely to break them
  • Commitment - how committed we are to convectional goals such as succeeding in education
  • Involvement - more involved in conventional activities, less time to spend on committing crimes
  • Beliefs - if we have been socialised to believe it is right to obey the law, less likely to break it
• Parenting

  • emphasises role of parenting in creating bonds that prevent young people from offending
  • Gottfredson and Hirschi argued low self-control is major cause of delinquency
  • Riley and Shaw argues that parents should involve themselves in teenagers lives, take interest in their hobbies, show strong disapproval of criminal behaviour
  • Walter Reckless pointed out importance of parenting and socialisation, we have psychological tendencies that lead to criminality
  • Feminists use control theory to explain women's low rate of offending