Starks Chapter 8

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Starks Chapter 8

• Social Control

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Chapter Outline
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Why does Japan have a high level of social order

• Michael Hecter and Satoshi Kanazawa 1990 Japanese
  society is organized in ways that maximize the
  impact of local group solidarity on each
  individual.
• Three primary factors
• Principle of dependence-the more dependent
  members are on a group the more they conform to
  group norms
• Principle of Visibility To the extent that the
  behavior of group members is easily observed by
  other members, their degree of conformity to
  group norms will be greater.
• Principle of extensiveness The greater the scope
  and extent of norms upheld by the group, the
  greater will be the contribution to the overall
  social order.

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Dependence

• The Japanese are more dependent on groups than
  their counterparts in comparably developed
  societies. This patter of dependence begins early
  in the life-cycle and continues throughout it.
• I.e. High schools determine if and where the
  students attend college/go to jobs with specific
  firms
• Employers simply tell a school how many recruits
  they need
• Japanese who leave school have no option of
  returning later
• Once they have a job they rarely change jobs.
  Employers can demand that they lead exemplary
  lives or be fired with little option of going to
  another firm

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Visibility

• The family has very limited space and their rooms
  are separated by thin screens
• At school students are under constant and close
  supervision-no individual activities, no free
  periods, no library time, no opportunity to
  leave, even for BR breaks
• On the job most work in open space, single
  workers live in dormitories provided by work
• Married couples move into housing furnished by
  employers,supervision nearly as constant as the
  dorms-with M-I-L there, moving in if widowed

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Extensiveness

• Norms are sustained by family, school,
  neighborhood and work groups
• Norms are strictly enforced and very general so
  that the teacher can make demands about
  out-of-school activities, the employer can
  require a certain life-style

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Formal Control

• Formal means of social control are applied only
  for acts of deviance that are also illegal or
  providing grounds for legal intervention

• Formal Social Control is attempted in three
  principal ways
• Prevention
• Determent
• Reform or Resocialize

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Prevention

• Reduce the opportunity for committing a criminal
  act. I. E. lock doors, prohibit the sale of
  drugs
• Opportunity Theory Cohen and Felson 1979-Crime
  requires motivated criminals, suitable targets
  and the absence of effective guardians. Crime
  increases when no one is home during the day, and
  decline when there is an increase in unemployment
  and adults are at home. Neighborhoods near a
  school have an increase in crime
• Block Watch Programs, Home security systems
  shopping centers vs. long laid out retail areas
• Socialization-intervene to help you remain crime
  free

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Cambridge Somerville Experiment 1930-Richard Cabot

• Picked two economically distressed neighborhoods
  Cambridge and Somerville
• Hired counselors and researchers who selected 650
  boys, av. age of 11-2 groups of 325
• Experimental group free health care, field trips,
  tutoring, vacations at summer camps, recreation
  program and individual counseling
• 40 of both groups committed a crime 10 years
  later the groups were studied again and again no
  difference could be found

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Other Prevention Programs

• String of failed Experiments during the 1950s
  and 1960s using psychotherapy to reform
  delinquents
• Social workers took to the streets to reform
  juvenile gangs
• The only successful trial Oregon study parents
  of problem children were trained by psychologists
  to have more effective control of their behavior.

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Deterrence

• Plato Punishment brings wisdom, it is the
  healing act of wickednessnot to retaliate for a
  past wrong but rather to be sure the man who is
  punished and he who sees him punished may be
  deterred from doing wrong again.
• Capital Punishment common during 18th C. By 20
  C. out of vogue internationally. Since 1977 350
  persons have been executed in the U.S. more than
  3,500 are in prison with a capital sentence

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Jack Gibbs A theory of Deterrence

• The more rapid, the more certain, and the more
  severe the punishment, for a crime, the lower the
  rate at which crimes will occur.

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Capital Punishment Controversy

• Quakers first to eliminate torture and execution
• Racial Discrimination African Americans were
  executed more-53 of persons in the US executed
  between 1930 and 1967.
• Failure of research to show it works as a
  determent
• ? If punishment deters crime, why are the prisons
  filled with recidivists?

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The Wheels of Justice

• The Police
• The police respond primarily to crimes that are
  reported to them. About 2/3 of the time crime
  goes unreported. In the U.S. police solve 1
  burglary in 10, The threat of jail does not
  deter due to the low odds of being caught.

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The Courts

• Many people arrested for the first time have the
  case dropped, flaws in the arrest procedure,
  problems of evidence, failure of key witnesses to
  appear, plea bargaining.
• Even if convicted may receive a suspended
  sentence or be placed on probation

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Zeisel 1982

• Of every 1000 Felonies
• 540 are reported
• 65 result in an arrest
• 36 are prosecuted and convicted
• 17 are sentenced to serve time in jail or prison
• 3 serve less than one year.

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Reform and Resocialization

• Historically prison was a waiting place for
  trial/sentence of flogging/execution/branding
• William Penn, Quaker experimented with prisoners
  to do hard labor to pay the victim. Penn prisons
  were ripe for abuse
• 1790 New Penitentiary 8X6 cell, work to pay for
  support
• 1816 Auburn NY, cells in tiers
• 1930-1940 halted prison labor Increased expense
  of prisons
• Reform and resocialization have not improved
  recidivism rates