Criminology AC 2.1

• Social control definition 


  Persuading or compelling people to conform to society's norms, laws and expectations
• Internal social control definition


  Controls over our behaviour that come from within ourselves
• Internal social control - moral conscience or superego


  Freud's psychodynamic theory -> superego tells us what is right and wrong and inflicts guilty feelings on us if we fail to do as it urges

  Superego develops through early socialization within the family as a sort of internalized 'nagging parent' telling us how we are to behave

  Restrain the selfish 'animal' urges of the id

  If we acted on these urges they could lead us into anti-social and criminal behaviour

  Our superego allows us to exercise self-control and behave in socially acceptable ways
• Internal social control - tradition and culture


  The culture to which we belong also becomes part of us through socialization -> come to accept its values, norms and traditions as part of our identity

  eg believers follow religious traditions that they have been raised in - Muslims fasting for Ramadam

  Conforming to such traditions is an important way of affirming one's identity and being accepted as a member of a particular community
• Internal social control - internalization of social rules and morality


  We internalise rules through the process of socialization -> become our own personal rules and moral code
• rational ideology


  term that has been used to describe the fact that we internalise social rules and use them to tell us what is right and wrong -> enables us to keep law abiding

  eg murder is illegal; queuing
• external social control definition


  external pressures persuade or compel members of society to conform to the rules
• external - coercion


  The use of force to achieve a desired end

  • physical - imprisonment; death penalty
  • non-violent - strike; boycott; fines; suspended sentence
• external - individual deterrence


  Imposed on offenders in order to deter or prevent them from committing further crime eg suspended sentence; conditional discharge
• external - general deterrence


  Fear of punishment that prevents others from committing similar crimes

  eg mandatory minimums - life sentence for murder, 7 years for a 3rd drug offence, 3 years for a 3rd burglary

  eg three strikes and you're out (USA)
• Control theory - Hirschi, Bonds of attachment


  People conform because they are controlled by their bonds to society
• Attachment


  • The more attached we are to others the more we care about their opinion of us - we will be less likely to break the rules if we are concerned what our parents + teachers might think
• Commitment


  • 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
• Involvement


  • The more involved we are in a conventional law-abiding activities the less time we have for illegal activities
• Belief


  • If we have been socialized to believe it is right to obey the law we are less likely to break it