Ac 2.1

• AC 2.1 internal forms of social control

  Controls over our behaviour that come from within ourselves, from our personality or values, can also be said to be forms of self control

  • Moral conscience/superego according to Freuds psychoalitic theory, we conform to societies expectations, and obey the rules because our super ego tells us to, super ego, tells us what’s right and wrong, it develops through socialisation as an internalised ‘ nagging parent’ telling us how to behave and restraining the animal urges of the Id which we followed, would lead to antisocial behaviour
• AC 2.1 internal forms of social control p2

  tradition and culture, this comes to us through socialisation, we come to accept its values and norms as part of identity eg Muslim fasting for Ramadan, conforming to traditions, affirming identity and being accepted as part of the community

  • Internalisation of social rules and morality- both superego and traditions become part of our inner self, but start as things outside of us. E.g. parents rules (superego) or is those of our social group (tradition)
  • Socialisation- in both cases, we internalise these rules through socialisation (parents/religion)
• AC 2.1 internal forms of social control p3

  Socialisation- Society rules and moral code become our personal rules and moral code, as a result, we willingly conform to social norms

  • rational ideology, the term used to describe the fact we internalised social rules and use them to tell us what’s right/wrong, enabling us to keep within the law
• AC 2.1 external forms of social control

  Theory came from Hirischi

  • Society controls used to ensure we can form to its expectations and keep to its rules, facilitated through agencies of social control
  • Agencies of social control -institutions that impose rules on us to make us behave, including family, peer groups, education system. These can give both positive and negative sanctions e.g. detention/ gold stars
  • Echoes skinners, operant, learning theory of behaviour, reinforcement, punishments, deter, rewards, encourage behaviour
• AC 2.1 internal forms of social control p2


  CJS- lots of agencies are social control with power to use legal sanctions to make people conform to societies, law agencies and their powers include police (stop, search, arrest), CPS (charge, and prosecute), judges (sentence, bail, or put in prison), prison (detain, and punish)

  • coercion-use of threat or force in order to make someone do/not do something force can be physical/psychological ect negative sanctions of criminal justice system above are examples of coercion e.g. sending someone to prison aimed at preventing further offending
• AC 2.1 external forms of social control p3

  Fear of punishment- a way way of trying to achieve social control and make people conform to laws, fear of punishment is a form of coercion as it involves threat that force will be used against you if you don’t obey the law

  • deterrence- right, realist argue. Fear of being caught and punished is what insures would be criminals, continue to obey the law (fear acts as a deterrent)
• AC 2.1 control theory

  Hirschi think about why people obey the law, he says they can form because they’re controlled by their bonds to society which stops them from deviating, he says, delinquent acts occur when peoples bond to society is weak/broken. He says individuals bond to society has four elements:

  1. Attachment, the more we attached to others, the more we care about their opinion of us so we will respect their norms and not break them. E.g. parents, teachers
• Ac 2.1 control theory p2

  2. Commitment, the more committed we are to conventional goals, e.g. succeeding in education, getting a good job the more we risk losing by getting involved in crime, so the more likely we are to confirm

  3. involvement, the more we are involved in conventional law abiding activities e.g. sport the less time and energy. We will have forgetting into crimes e.g. youth clubs. Keep kids off the street and busy with legal activities.

  4. Beliefs., if we’ve been socialised to believe it’s right to obey the law, we’re less likely to break it.
• AC 2.1 control theory p3

  Parenting, control theory, parenting is key to creating bonds that prevent kids offending Gottfredson and Shaw found lack of parental supervision was a big factor in delinquency. Arguing parent should involve themselves with teenagers, take interest in what they do, show strong disapproval of criminal behaviour and explain consequences of offending

  • Walter reckless, says we have psychological tendencies that can lead criminal behaviour, but effective socialisation can provide internal containment by building the self-control to resist temptation to offend
• AC 2.1 control theory p3

  feminists, use control theory to explain women’s lower offending rate heidensohn Augies, patriarchal society, controls women more closely, making it harder for them to offend