Unit 4 2.1

• Coercion

  1. Use of force to get someone to conform

  2. Psychological (e.g. through therapy or verbal warnings from the police)

  3. Physical (e.g. being arrested by the police)
• Coercion


  An external force used by agencies to either threaten or use as a means of warning
• Fear of punishment


  1. Used as a means of coercion

  2. Force is used if someone is not conforming

  3. Guiding people to conform to those agencies
• Coercion and fear of punishments are forms of external control
• Control theory


  Theory that people abide by the law due to being controlled by their bonds of society
• Travis Hirshi's control theory


  • People abide by the law due to having strong bonds to society
  • Delinquent acts occur when an individual's bonds to a society are weak and broken
• Elements of Hirshi's bonds


  • Attachment
  • Commitment
  • Involvement
  • Beliefs
• Attachment


  Having a positive attachment e.g. to parents, peers and school, to promote a need for pro-social behaviour
• Commitment


  Having an ambition to achieve positive future goals, such as a future job, stable income, comfortable home, to conform and reach desired outcome
• Involvement


  Being involved in social activities such as cadets, youth groups, to feel a sense of belonging and be less prone to commit crime
• Beliefs


  Having a belief in society's values, such as honesty being needed, to believe that committing crime is a wrongdoing
• When some of these bonds are not present, it's when law is not abided by
• Explain how tradition is a form of internal control

  1. Tradition is linked to how we get our own individual set of moral principles

  2. Tradition can be influenced by religion

  3. Tradition can influence us through our upbringing

  4. Tradition encourages us to conform to norms and tells us what is acceptable and unacceptable
• Tradition is an internal control
• Examples of tradition influencing behaviour


  • The value of 'thou shall not kill' is illustrated to followers of unacceptable behaviour
  • Queueing
• Traditions encourage us to confirm to the norms as well as telling us what is acceptable to do but also what is not acceptable
• Internal social control


  How we get our own independent set of moral principles
• Internal social control


  • Can be influenced by religion such as the values created by the Ten Commandments
  • The main value of "thou shall not kill" represents the value of a wrong act of taking away life
  • Belonging to a community or a particular value such as religeon can be important for the development of internal self-control
• Rational ideology


  A set of moral principles or beliefs that guide and influence our decision making
• Rational ideology


  • Tells us what is acceptable and not acceptable
  • Can come from our upbringing as an external force which gradually becomes internalised via socialisation
  • Our overall influenced become a part of us and is also logically reasoned by us for how we behave
• Internal control


  Links to the theory of social learning by Bandura
• Social learning theory


  • For a behaviour to be internalised it starts off by observation which then leads to the concept of us imitating their values and behaviours
  • Behaviour is more likely to be imitated if you see someone else get rewarded through vicarious reinforcement
• External social control


  The idea of what forces us to conform using reward and punishment
• External forces that control us


  • Parents
  • Peers
  • Authority
  • Police
• External social control


  • We are overall controlled by external forces from the very beginning
  • Agencies such as the police guide us to make the right decision and conform
• Coercion


  The use of force to get an individual to conform
• Types of coercion


  • Physical (e.g. arresting someone or stopping and searching them)
  • Psychological (e.g. verbal warning)
• Coercion is used


  As a threat or an actual warning depending on the circumstances
• Fear of punishment


  Often used as a means of coercion, as a force is used if an individual does not start to conform
• Right realists state "crime would be a lot worse with their being a fear of punishment"
• Individual deterrence


  When a person who has committed a crime receives the punishment of either a suspended sentence or a discharge, designed to deter them from offending again due to conditions hanging over them
• External forces of control also act as a general deterrence as it deters the rest of society from committing same/similar crime
• Deterring someone away from crime is often described as getting tough on crime
• 3 years in prison for a third burglary - mandatory life sentence for murder