Social Control
Q11. “Zero tolerance” is a popular cry these days, but does it always make sense? It is certainly a powerful symbolic statement, but it presents problems. Consider the diagram below and discuss the idea of zero tolerance in terms of marginal costs and benefits.
Q12. Erikson writes “…the very expression ‘he is a thief’ or ‘he is an addict’ seems to provide at once a description of his position in society and a profile of his character.” How is this relevant for understanding one of the main points of the Rosenhan article?
13. Even the worst "deviant" is mostly a conformer. Explain what this means and what it’s relevance is for
a theory of social control.
14. Fill in the focus column of the table below and try to find an example of each in your file. Write a sentence or two explaining how the example illustrates the focus of this style of social control.
15. Write a few paragraphs (< 400 words) explaining what makes these two situations a pair.
16. In some countries (and in some parts of this country) bus queues are more orderly and more common than in others. In other words, in some places people actually form a nice neat line starting at the spot where the bus will pull up so that people can board in exactly the order they arrived at the stop. What’s a common phrase for the norm used in such cases? Under what kinds of conditions would you expect strict queuing vs. more nonchalant “standing around”? Can you express the plusses and minuses in terms of deadweight loss and transaction costs?
17. Coser described several theorists whose work looked at "social control from the inside." What's the "technical term" for "social control from the inside"? Name three of these theorists and provide some identifying information (e.g., "Tongan psychotherapist who wrote in 1920s").
18. Deviance has multiple functions. Give a examples of deviation as (1) a pressure release valve; (2) innovation.
19. Explain what Durkheim meant when he wrote that crime is a normal rather than a pathological condition of a society using, as an example, a political group which very carefully screens members to be sure that they agree with all the attitudes that the group stands for so that the group is quite homogeneous. Would Durkheim expect deviance to arise in this group? How so? What kind?
20. Explain what is meant by "social control as a dependent variable."
21. Coser combines the insight that sometimes deviance is functional (as well as harmful) with the insight that groups don’t always reject rule breakers to form a typology of four social control scenarios. Label the rows and columns of the 2x2 table to the right with the appropriate values.
A | B |
C | D |
22. What does Donald Black mean by “corporate space”? In what sense is "corporateness" a variable? Give an example of a conflict in which one party has “high” corporateness and the other has “low” corporateness.
23. Both Donald Black and Robert Ellickson take care to distinguish between first, second, and third party social control. Most of this course has focused on one particular type of third party control – informal control through social norms. Using marriage/married life as an example, briefly demonstrate that you understand that control varies from personal ethics (first party, self control), promisee enforced contracts (second party), and the three types of third party control (organizational rules, law, and social norms) by describing ways each might come up in association with marriage, married relationships, etc..
24. Donald Black described 6 styles of social control – penal, conciliatory, therapeutic, compensatory, prevention, and reform. Show that you understand what these are and how they fit into this course by considering the different styles of social control that might be employed in conflicts that could emerge between employee and employer or in the workplace in general..
Q43. Based on your reading of Erikson, Becker, et al., write a short essay addressing one of the following.
- A 50 year old social scientist says "when I was in college, there was no date rape." Explain what a sociologist would mean by this.
- Consider the comments below about the experience of a patient in a mental hospital.
- Is the medical clarification of heretofore "invisible" disabilities an unqualified good?
Q44. Media analysis of SOPA wars.
Q45.
Essay Question
The thinkers and theories we have briefly visited have taken a number of basic starting points: people basically good, bad, mixed; people never change; a small defect defines the entire person; biology is destiny. What’s your take on human nature? What kind of a thing is a person for the purposes of thinking about social control? Which readings or thinkers do you feel you line up with? Which ones do you seem to reject?
Q58. Consider these examples of claimsmaking…
Q61. Donald Black wrote of two ways that social control can be a variable. Answer three questions about this:
- In what sense can SC be a variable? What does that mean?
- What kinds of questions do we ask when we look at social control as an independent variable?
- What kinds of questions do we ask when we look at social control as a DEPENDENT variable?
Q62. Using the course page on Corporate Persons as your jumping off point, search for information on the current state of the "overturn citizens united" or "anti-corporate person" campaign in each of your states. The first installment of the assignment is a very quick overview of each state.
Q65. Consider the document, "Plagiarism: Deterrence, Detection and Prevention" (a teaching manual for economics and business) by Jeremy B. Williams as an artifact. How would you classify the strategies for plagiarism prevention that it describes?
Q66. The chart below could easily figure in an argument that the death penalty does not deter murder. It shows that since 1990 the murder rate per 100,000 population has been higher in states WITH the death penalty than in those without it.