Responding to Crime & Deviance Sociology Responding to Crime & Deviance

Types of Social Control Social Control – the way society shapes and controls the way we think and behave. It involves using groups or institutions to socialise us properly. Rewards and sanctions are often involved. School – rewards; words of affirmation, sanctions; detention. Religion – rewards; promise of heaven, sanction; promise of hell. Peer group – rewards; inclusion, sanction; exclusion. Social life is full of written and unwritten rules. Most people follow these rules but some don't and the reason why some do is because they are persuaded to with social control. Without social control everyone would be free to do as they please and encourages selfish behaviour. This results in weaker members of the public being bullied by stronger people. Functionalists – stress that everyone needs to work as one to keep society going. Marxists – working class is weak vulnerable, ruling class strong, selfish and set the rules. Norm-setting – norms which people must follow in society. E.g. rich people. Two forms of social control; Formal social control – based on written rules and laws and associated with the government who use different agencies to create and enforce laws. Informal social control – not based on written accepted rules or laws. Based on agreements or processes between people in other situations e.g. school or home. Based on approval or disapproval of others and their reactions. Positive reactions; inclusion, negative reaction; exclusion.

Informal Agencies of Social Control Agent – something or someone who acts on the behalf of someone to get something done. E.g. agents for an actor. Agents of social control – parts of society which all help to make us conform to the rules, norms and values of society. These are; Family – norms of society. School – values of society. Peer group – norms of society. Mass Media- norms and values through reports and ads. Religion – morality system. Workplace – norms of society.

Formal Agencies of Social Control There are four that primary role is to make us conform to rules and are organised by government. These are; Police – enforces and investigates crime and are a very important agency. Roles include; Controlling traffic and roads. Keeping order in society. Investing crime/collecting evidence. Protecting and serving public. Educating public about crime. Styles of Policing – James Wilson said there are four types which come out in relation to what task they are carrying out or their mood. Individual police tend to have a certain style and are linked to public relations and the community. These are; Watchman – maintaining order and keeping crime under control. Often found in working class, mixed ethnicity areas and certain crimes may be overlooked as long public order is okay. May treat certain groups differently in order of threat level. Legalistic – law enforcement and professionalism. Found in cities with mixed socioeconomic composition. Expected to generate large number of arrests and treat everyone the same. However, still police treat different groups different due to threat level. Involves a zero tolerance policy and they are strict on all types of crime. Service – emphasises service function of policing and protecting citizens against outsiders. Usually found in suburban, middle class areas where residents need individual treatment. The structures community means crimes are more obvious and therefore less common and leave police to deal with petty crimes. Community – has become very popular. Involves police making links with members of the community e.g. visiting schools. May be useful in building links with minority groups. Public relations – depend on the social characteristics of citizens and style of policing. Service = better relations than working class and ethnic minorities with watchman or legalistic. E.g. Stephen Lawrence. Functionalists – doing a good job for society and socialise the public in order to keep society health with social order. Marxists – see police as helping the ruling class have control over us and stay that way. They protect ruling class from working class stealing their stuff and stop working class protest.

Formal Agencies of Social Control Judiciary (courts) – deals with alleged offenders and convicts and sentences people. Magistrate court = less important crimes, crown court = big crimes. Involves all legal institutions that work together to decide what happens when laws are broken. Police investigate and collect evidence then judiciary takes over. There are different types of courts; Youth court – deals with young offenders and work with the youth offending team. Magistrates court - deal with adult crimes which are less serious. Magistrates tend to be volunteers with no background in law. Have power to send someone to jail for 6 months or fines. Crown court – deals with serious crimes and is controlled by a judge. 12 Members of the public randomly selected help and are the jury. They decide if the person is guilty or innocent. Judge only decides on sentence. Social perspectives – on the judiciary; Functionalists – see it in a good light and they play an important role in society because they remove bad people from society and try to make them better. Reminds people of boundaries and shapes the way law is used and respond to changing norms. Marxists – have a negative view. Only benefits the rich and powerful in society and law is mainly about protecting property. Also the poor are treated more harshly. Prison – confines prisoners as a punishment or to keep others from doing the same. Houses of Parliament – make up rules and regulate behaviour.

Solutions to Crime Not everyone agrees on solutions to crime. Some think there needs to be more focus on criminals and others think their needs to be more focus on causes of crime. Causes of crime – nurture theory suggests that we aren't born to do crime it is a product of our socialisation. Marxists agree that crime is a result of poverty. We should use as many influences as possible to stop crime before it starts. These are; Community action – making crime difficult within a community e.g. neighbourhood watch. Problem is that criminals will just target weaker communities. Multi – agency intervention – schools etc that in which the workers can lead a law abiding life and indentify anyone who is potentially a criminal. Problem is no way of measuring success and cant reach everyone. Tackling poverty – People wanting to achieve wealth through crime. People argue removing poverty will reduce crime and as a result there is things like minimum wage. Problem is there will always be richer people. Tackling criminals – finding ways to deal with convicted criminals so they don’t commit more crime. These are; Rehabilitation – based on the belief that severe punishment cannot result in reform. They are instead given therapy to know breaking laws is wrong and are helped in order to lead a normal life. Problem is it can be expensive and it doesn’t always work. Custodial sentence – sending someone to prison and keeping them away from communities. Scares criminals from recommitting crimes and warns other members of society, it’s a form of deterrence. Problem is the cost and prisoner interaction with other prisoners. Non custodial sentences – sending someone any where but prison. Includes being fined or community service. Cheaper than custodial sentences but problem is that they are too light. Corporal and capital punishment – used to be in Britain but still in other countries. Corporal punishment – includes inflicting pain as retribution Capital punishment – death penalty Seen as very good deterrents but problem is they are inhumane.