2.1

• Forms of Social Control

  • Internal
  • External
• Internal forms of social control

  • Moral conscience / superego
  • Tradition / culture
  • Internalisation
• Moral conscience / superego


  Freud argued we conform to society's expectations and obey its rules because our superego tells us to. It tells us what is right and wrong and inflicts guilt.
• Moral conscience / superego


  • It develops through early socialisation
  • It restrains our selfish animalistic urges of the id
  • Acting upon the Id would lead to antisocial and criminal behaviour
• Tradition / culture


  The tradition to which we belong becomes part of us through socialisation. We accept its values and traditions as part of our identity. Following its traditions is a way of affirming our identify and being accepted as a member of the community
• Internalisation


  The superego and traditions start outside of ourselves but become part of our personality. We are socialised into them so that society's rules become our own personal rules and moral code.
• Rational ideology


  The fact that we internalise social rules and use them to morally guide us. This keeps us within the law.
• External forms of social control

  • Agencies of social control
• Agencies of social control


  Organisations or institutions that impose rules on us to make us behave in certain ways
• Positive and negative sanctions


  Used by agencies of social control to enforce behaviour (Skinner's operant learning theory of behaviour reinforcement)
• Agencies of the criminal justice system

  • Police
  • CPS
  • Judges & magistrates
  • Prison service
• Control theory


  Why do people abide by the law?
• Bonds to society


  • Parenting
  • Low self control
  • Lack of parental supervision
  • Effective socialisation can provide 'internal containment'
  • Parental discipline acts as 'external containment'
• Feminists argue that women are more controlled in society which leads to lower rates of criminality in women. eg) women spend more time doing domestic duties.
• Carlen found that women who offend have often failed to form an attachment to parents due to abuse or being brought up in care.
• Internalisation of social rules and morality

  Our superego and the traditions we follow become part of our inner-self or personality
• Socialisation

  1. Social rules and moral codes become our own personal rules and moral codes

  2. We internalise these rules through the process of socialisation

  3. This can be from parents or wider social groups and institutions such as school, religion and peer groups
• Rational ideology

  • We internalise social rules and use them to tell us what is right and wrong
  • This enables us to keep within the law
• External forms of social control

  • Coercion - the use of threat of force in order to make someone do (or stop doing) something
  • Fear of punishment - a form of coercion, involving the threat of force being used against you if you do not obey the law
• Coercion involves physical or psychological violence, or other forms of pressure
• Fear of being caught and punished acts as a deterrent, ensuring many would-be criminals continue to obey the law
• Control theory

  • Focuses on why people obey the law, rather than why they commit crime
  • Suggests people conform because they are controlled by their bonds to society, which keep them from deviating
• Elements of an individual's bond to society (Hirschi)


  • Attachment
  • Commitment
  • Involvement
  • Beliefs
• Attachment

  • The more attached we are to others, the more we will care about their opinion of us, the more we will respect their norms and the less likely we are to break them. This is especially true of attachments to parents and teachers.
• Commitment


  • The more we are committed to a conventional lifestyle, the more we risk losing by getting involved in crime, so the more likely we are to conform
• Involvement


  • The more involved we are in conventional, law abiding activities like studying or participating in sports, the less time and energy we will have for getting involved in criminal ones.
• Beliefs

  • If we have been socialised to believe that it is right to obey the law, we are less likely to break it.
• Many control theorists emphasise the role of parenting in creating bonds that prevent young people from offending
• Gottfredson and Hirschi


  Low self-control is a major cause of delinquency, resulting from poor socialisation and inconsistent or absent parental discipline
• Riley and Shaw

  Lack of parental supervision was an important factor in delinquency. Parents should involve themselves in their teenagers' lives, take an interest in what they do, and show strong disapproval of misbehaviour.
• Walter Reckless


  We have psychological tendencies that can lead to criminality. Effective socialisation can provide "internal containment" by building self-control, while "external containment" comes from parental discipline.