Agencies of social control??

Hey,
I am really stuck on the agencies of social control. If we get a question on them what do we write. Just about Marxsim??

Any advice would be much appreciated!!

Regards,

Alice_G

Reply 1

Podge

agencies of social control are things like the family, police, education, religion, socialisation etc

you could write about marxism about how the m/c control the w/c etc
interactionists- labelling as a form of social control. e.g education when a w/c pupil/black e.g afro carribbean is labelled as thick, then self fulfilling prophecy occurs resulting in them being in a low set etc.

just being in every theory you know.

Reply 2

mooncheese89

^^ as above. I'd say family, education and religion are the main ones to cover as agents of ideological control, as the norms and values of the ruling class are transmitted in these ways, and thus the working classes are exploited and they are 'tricked' into believing that the system is just and fair.

Reply 3

tis_me_lord

Definine social control as methods used to maintain social order (collective conscience.)

Family as main agent of social control...

Hirschi, the family produces 4 bonds which enable social control:

Attatchment - care about feelings of others
Commitment - taught that there will be punishment for wrong behaviour
Involvement - spend so much time with family you can't be deviant
Belief - believing it's good to be law abiding

Farrington and west, looked at a group of male delinquents and they usually came from families where there was no male father figure, or where the parents had criminal records themselves.

Dennis, part of the new right, feel the family is in decline which is why there's deviance. The old nuclear families going, and divorce sets a bad example because it shows lack of commitment, and women should work less and spend more time with their children.

Community as main agent of social control...

Murray, communities have broken down leading to more crime. People don't see others as their responsibility anymore when they should. If people in council estates do work they're soon dragged down into sponging because they resent working for little extra benefit.

Wilson, communities should encourage people to be good, i.e. pick up litter etc, uses the broken windows thesis: if one window in a building is broken all of them will be soon, so you should prevent any breaking.

Punishment as a form of social control...

Functionalists, it's good because it discourages people from reoffending, and maintains the collective conscience.

Marxists, bad because it's only in the interests of the ruling class, they only aim for rehibilitation so they can get more workers for capitialism again.

Police as agency of social control....

Consensus, Bob on the beat, works in the interests of the public, responds to reporting etc...

Conflict, secretive, CCTV and hiding in their cars, the "canteen culture" of racism etc, only works in interests of higher powers.

Maybe you could discuss the formal and informal sanctions, the formal being things like police etc, but informal is just average members of the public giving dirty looks etc, which may deter them (bit like the Wilson littering idea.)

I also have a little bit in my notes on how the methods of social control have altered, not sure if that is relevant...

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