The judiciary and prison services are responsible for dealing with people who have broken the law. The court is responsible for judging the level of crime and deviance and choosing an appropriate punishment. The prisons are responsible for trying to help offenders to reform whilst serving their punishment in order to allow them to fit back into society and replace or encourage the norms and values in order to fit in with the expectations of society and also to comply with the law.
Levels of punishment depend on the type of crime committed. The most serious two crimes are murder and rape. The sentence for rape can be criticised as it is usually about eight years and this does not appear to be a heavy enough sentence for that crime. Crimes such as burglary, fraud and shoplifting tend to have light sentences, either a short spell in prison, or having to do community service accompanied with an appropriate fine. There will always be people who do not comply with the law and do not fit in with society’s norms and values and so there will always be a need for formal social control.
Informal social control involves institutions and social groups which are not directly concerns with enforcing social control and upholding the law. These groups include; schools, families, peer groups and religious organisations.
The family and schools socialise young people and teach them the norms and values of the wider society. If they conform to these norms and values they are usually rewarded perhaps by being given pocket money, sweets praise or maybe a gold star, examples of behaviour resulting in reward could include, doing homework on time, respecting elders, tidying up their room etc. Deviance from the norms and values tends to result in punishment, deviance could involve, not doing homework, arguing with siblings, answering parents back etc, examples of punishment that might be used could involve, not being allowed to watch television, not being given pocket money or being grounded.. The family is seen by sociologists as the most important driving force of informal social control as it provides the first phase of socialisation. Children are influenced by their families to behave in a way that is expected of them by society. They will copy the behaviour of their parents and other family members and so are learning the norms and values. Talgot Parsons said that “the family is the primary group of socialisation and the secondary source of socialisation is the school.” At the age of around five, most children will have learned what is perceived as acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, they will know what is wrong and what is right and this socialisation is vital for the Childs development. All parents have different views on what behaviour is acceptable and what is not. The norms and values that one parent instils could be totally different from another parents and so once the child starts school, the school takes over as the second form of socialisation and helps children to further develop their understanding of right and wrong. By learning that everybody is different and has different views, the child will learn to understand a wide range of rules and to use his or her own judgement in order to comply with what is expected of them at any given place.
Religious teachings reinforce the values of society. For example, encouraging the Ten Commandments, such as ‘thou shall not kill’ reinforces the value placed on human life. People who follow a religion tend to be rewarded for following the teachings of that religion; they anticipate that they may go to heaven if they are good, if they deviate from them, they could be punished, such as going to hell. Most religions have different views on what is correct and incorrect and so by choosing one particular religion, a person can be said to be agreeing to behave in a way that the religion teaches. This is how religion acts as a form of social control.
Individuals tend to worry about what people in their peer groups think of them. They seek to gain approval and acceptance and achieving this will help a person to feel good. If they get rejection and disapproval then they will be upset by this. Placing so much importance on the opinions of other people helps to play an integral part of social control. People conform to social norms in order to gain acceptance and to avoid rejection and disapproval.
Mass media plays an essential role in social control. People are influenced by the mass media and it helps to develop certain behaviours. The mass media influences people with models of behaviour that they can internalise and it also makes people aware of deviant behaviour and the punishments involved for the crimes. It is important for people to know that crimes are highly punishable and there are a lot of ways for a perpetrator to be caught. This helps to discourage people from behaving in a deviant way and also makes people aware of the crimes that do happen and in doing so is encouraging people to act in a safe way in public, such as not walking home on your own in the dark, not talking to strangers etc. The mass media makes people aware of what is deemed as acceptable behaviour and what is not. Even by portraying trivial acts that famous people do, such as getting drunk and acting the fool in public, it helps to encourage people to comply with the norms and values expected of them by society. Types of mass media include; the press, television, magazines, radio stations etc. The effects can be either positive or negative. An example of negative media could be a computer game which portrays violence; this could encourage teenagers to behave in a violent, anti social way.
The mass media has been criticised for over –reporting violence and sex crimes. Ditton and Duffy said that “Although crime only forms a small part of the news, it is given extensive coverage and tends to dominate the media.” It has been argued that sensitisation to crime is what encourages a fear of crime.
In any society, there are laws which must be observed, penalties that punish their infraction, and procedures that can be called upon to judge guilt or innocence, impose sentences, and provide recompense. These form a holistic system of social control, without which no form of society could be maintained.
Emily Cohen
