Why are we studying sociology in a law course?

- Society influences law

- Law regulates society
There is no definite agreement in any subject.

LAW AND SOCIETY PERSPECTIVE/ MOVEMENT

1st reading = invitation to law and society: an introduction to the study of

real law. (by KITTY CALAVITA)

Sacred is that which we set apart from our daily life and give
certain powers to it.
 Are laws sacred?
 Idea of isolation/ insulation
 Black letter concept of law: that which is written is taken as final
 Legal reasoning teaches us to use law in a very precise manner
 More inclination towards general than individuals in sociology
 Law-in-the-books v. law-in-action
 Policy
 Laws emerge when people are more inclined and debate about
same topic
 Law is a source of legitimacy
 Social science tools and methods are the laboratories for lawyers.

THE LAW AND THE SOCIETY MOVEMENT – L.M.Friedman

 Scholarly enterprise ; describes legal phenomena in social
terms.
Examines relationship between two social phenomena:
 Legal
 Non-legal
It is different because : 1. Scholars try to be systematic about
their subject
2. they try to achieve rigor in method and
theory
3. they attempt to separate normative from
descriptive issues
HISTORY: began in 19th century
Sir Henry Maine = ancient law (1861)
Max Weber ( founding parent)
Durkheim
Movement’s ideas:
^ legal systems are essentially man-made.
^ idea of cultural relativity.

“law varies in time and space”

This movement presupposes an instrumental theory of law.
LAW=INSTRUMENT(here)
Legal systems can be studied as a social phenome without
passing judgement on their normative content.
 RECHTSWISSENSCHAFT: discipline internal to legal
system derives its reasons from “legal autonomous principles”
This movement uses scientific method
*theories = scientific
*studies = loose, wriggling, changing subject matter
The work does not build/grow; it travels in eyes and cricles,
because:
*Research itself is Less honoured than theory/model-building
* flow from nature of legal system itself
* field is weak in replication
* law cannot be unambiguously defined.
There is no objective definition of law or any clear physical
boundary
Relationship of law to culture is an unsolved problem
*humans handle everything differently; to some issues they give
more legal importance whereas to others they give insignificant
value.
Study can be scientific if the object of study is bounded and
defined in terms of time and place.
Whether the movement illuminates important areas of
law/sheds light on significant social process or problems
Lot of disputes and debate about how much flow in and out
of the legal sector.
 Main motor force = derives from concrete demands on
institutions that make up the legal system.
Legal institution : 1. Change terms of demands 2. Translate
them to legal concepts 3. Work on them in patterned ways
Association of scholars , a journal of academic research and
a collection of empirical approaches to understanding of how law
works.

CHANGES WHICH LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF

SOCIOLOGY

1. SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION-
scientific methods
became popuar.

"universal laws"-so
that we can know
how the world works

PROGRESS

2. AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Intellectual level movement

away from dark -- light

emanuel kant ( prominent german philosopher)
•motto: DARE TO KNOW [ call to action, war cry]

continuation of renaissance ( similarities + differences)

Universal man: somebody who

Leonardo da vinci : “complete
knows everything about everything.
man”
 INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
ASPECTS: * political
*social
* justice
* economic
“ I am the state” ???
Philosophes : a man who is educated and is a free
thinker[ French term]
They are not bound by the shackles of
church/king/censorship/traditional
restrains.
John locke : * experiences
* reason. Important for an empty mind.
Montesquieu : separation of powers ----- check & balance of
the systems.
Church: very rich

superior position

people had to pay

taxes.

- Legitimises absolute monarchy and divine

rights.
- Backwardness, superstition and fatalism.

(fate, bro. xD)

- GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE, BUT HE DOESN’T
INTERFERE IN OUR DAY TO DAY ACTIVITIES.
- SCIENCES= QUASI- RELIGION?
THOUGHT TO SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS

- Eugenics : manipulation at a genetic level to come up with a

customised child
- Salons: arbitrators of taste and fashion
Places where intellectuals gathered and discussed issues.

- Encyclopaedia: multiple volume where in knowledge was contained

so that the future generation could look back
- Laissez fair: live and let live, minimum interference of state, allow
eco. Liberty
- Punishment to deterrence : punish , but not torture
- Speedy justice
- Certain of punishment : if you commit a crime, there should be no
doubt that you’ll be punished
- Church/religion
- Family
- Nobility / absolutism
- Community
 - Guilds.

FRENCH REVOLUTION(1789)

French and direct involvement and investment in the American

revolution .

- American revolutionist were greatly influenced the writing

emerging from “ the age of enlightenment”
- But French were under excessive debt
- Success of American revolution causes of French
revolution
- Nature of French society

Divided into estates ( all have different rights and obligations)

- The three estates were : clergy, nobility, and

common people
peasants
labourers
rising
• traders, lawyers, doctors,
middle
businessman
class

- Victory of enlightened thinking

- Equality( but not completely universal)
- Limited nature of democracy
 - Took a turn as they thought the French revolution was becoming
something of an uncontrollable entity
- “ monster unleashed by the enlightenment.”

COUNTER ENLIGHTENMENT
(CONSERVATIVE ROMANTIC REACTION)

Position of social groups in the age of Enlightenment

 Individual: everyone has capacity to lead people forward
 Constraints, restrictions to individual
 Decline of monarchy
 (new) modern state= Reason rather than tradition
 Philosophers were critical of social groups which interfered between
the individuals and the state (like family, guilds, communities, clergy,
etc.)

Patriarchal family system criticized by enlightened people as all the powers

were given to the father
Gradual shift of power from father to state
State interfered into the patriarchal family to give rights of property to
son(s)
Institutionalisation of divorce:
No need for religious approval now
Civil marriages, rather than religious marriages

 Keats and Shelly

THE MODERN STATE

‘celebration of the individual’

 Rational
 Did not run on the whims and fancies of anyone
 Holds separate from government
 Ensured order and stability of the society

AUGUST COMTE: FATHER OF SOCIOLOGY

- worried about the disorganised modern state/ chaos

- he felt that this could be a POSITIVE SVIENCE

ROLE PLAYED BY THE LAW IN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

1. Enclosure Acts: Did away with rights of “common” lands

2. No Labour Laws: led to rise labour movements
And also, migration from Rural to Urban
3. Ban on Imported Finished Products
Make stuff on their own and dent to their colonies

LEGAL THEORISTS

- H.L.A. Hart
- Fuller

HART

(positivism)
Duty of person to obey laws, not judge them

FULLER

(natural)
If the law doesn’t have morality, it should not be considered

LAW OF THREE STAGES

i. Theological: word of god

ii. Metaphysical: moving away from supernatural
iii. Positive: everything is explained by science

DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

there are similarities as well as differences among humans as individuals

FACS:

- Facial Action Coding System

- Universal law of how humans react to certain situations
- Paul Ekman and others
- No cross cultural diversity in terms of usage

1. Systemic observation
 2. Causality- if not causality, then association (in SST)
3. Provisional
4. Objective- not allowing for biases to interfere with research

Scientific risk assessment

- Takes into account
i. Present change
ii. Past record
- Tells likelihood of crime to be committed in future by a person
convicted of crime now

Emile Durkheim:
 Believed in positivism, wanted to establish scientific nature of
sociology
 Instead of studying people, we should study social facts
 Society = collection of individuals and something more
 Law, religion, economy etc. exercise some power over every
individual in a society.
 Social facts are external i.e. they are outs, the individual and have
coercive power.
Suicide= Ultimate personal act.
 What was going on in the mind of individuals
 Studied suicide rates, though not at an individual level
 Saw that these rates showed some patterns/regularities
Patterns/regularities
i. Men > Women
ii. Protestants > Catholics > Jews (feel alone- Egoistic suicide)
iii. Single/Divorced/Widow(er) > Married
iv. Peace > War
v. Economic Boom= Economic Depression. (Anomic)
Anomie= Lawlessness/ Normlessness
Lack of direction.
{He was concerned with the level of solidarity in society i.e. social
solidarity.}

Mechanical Solidarity Organic Solidarity

Limited, some occupations, pre- Large scale, diverse, modern
modern
Same thoughts Different thoughts
Repressive legal system Restitutive legal system
Homogenous Heterogenous
Similar means keep them together Inter-dependence keeps them
together
Does not allow large degree of Ensuree going back to stability
variety and status quo
High level of punishments Lenient but reformative
(severe, physical) punishments

Social Facts- i. External ii. Coercive

Q. In modern society, what is the nature of social solidarity?
Moving from Mechanical to Organic solidarity.
Karl Marx- During the industrial revolution. Exiled to Britain from
Germany, then France. He was able to observe industrial capitalism.
 Proletariat? (Industrial working class- 1st class)
 Bourgeoise? (Capitalists- other class)
Capitalism: Relentless pursuits of profits.
According to Marx: Class= position they stand in the society.
 Base
 Superstructure
  Ultimate goal= progress from-
Primitive communism slave owning system Feudal system
Capitalism SocialCommunity (Ideal, Utopian society)
Economic Base= Economic system which emerges in a society.
Superstructure= All that depend on base (political, legal, family,
education, etc.)
Modern legal system revolves around importance of-
 Private properties
 Contracts
 Policing of protests
Max Weber (German) – Differs from Marx.
 Many other things (like ideas) influence economy.
 “The Protestant Ethic and the spirit of Capitalism”
 People obey the laws because of physical/ psychological sanction or
coercion.
 Sources of authority are either rightful or reserved.
Power= Ability to get people to do what you want.
Authority= Power backed by legitimacy
Any order that is backed by threat/probability coercion and which is
being implemented by staff of people who are there to ensure
conformity= Law according to Weber.
Q. Why people obey the law
1. Because of threat of coercion.
2. As they agree with the authority that the law maker has.
3. To avoid humiliation.
Kinds of authority-
I. Charismatic authority- Obeyed because of devotion from star
struck subjects. (Gandhi, Hitler, Mother Teresa)
 II. Legal authority (Rational)- Come into being because of rational
process which got them there. (Bureaucracy- modern court of
rationalism)
III. Traditional authority- Looked upto because that’s the way it has
been from time immemorial.
(insert 17-24) Commented [Office1]: attach

 Growth of “new urban personality”:

 Individualism
 Liberalism
 organized
 Loss of neighbour culture
 Industrial capitalism:
i) Break between work and home. E.g. Collective
production unit (handicrafts, agriculture and consumer).
ii) Gender based division of work. (Unit of consumption).
iii) Wages (money). –Earlier it was barter system.
 Assembly line production. E.g. FORD Car; Hungry ford used it
for mass production, it was cost efficient, ford model, mass
production= mass marketing.
 Workers said that it was very dehumanising as they were reduced
to elements, they had to do the same work all day, and they didn’t
have creative day, in the assembly line production. They felt
Alienated. They were paid such a low wages that they themselves
couldn’t buy that car.
 A phase was referred, “You can have any colour you want, s long
it’s black”
 Consumers are treated as puppets in the hands in the market
because of less variety.

CHARLIE CHAMPLIN: MODERN TIMES

 There is a limit s to how much we can rationalise life.
 Both machines and humans will malfunction one day.
  Machines will ultimately replace humans.
 Rationalization determines the fact that modern society is secular.
 Rationalization doesn’t allow space for super natural explanations,
hence, secular.
 George Ritzer = mcDonalization > McDonald’s (-effective,
calculated, prediction, control)
 Science and Technology
 Innovation always, no stagnation.
 Professionalisation of knowledge.
 Trust in abstract and distant systems (even when sometimes, we
don’t know how they work like internet, etc.)
 Risk: natural risk- humanly constructed risk
 Nation states emerged

INVITATION TO SOCIOLOGY
 Peter Berger: A humanist perspective. Beings by defining the term
‘society’
 Group of people (debating society) or “high society” people (high
class people).
 According to him, society – large complex of social relations –
system of interactions.
 People related directly or indirectly.
 How is a “group” different from “society”
 Society has to be distinctively autonomous.
 Structure vs. Agency
 Then he defines “social” = interactions, mutuality.
 Two other categories of people: LAWYER AND ECONOMIST.

LAWYER ECONOMIST
  Limited or directed statutes  How resources are allocated
or precedents say in society
 Not concerned with  Very rational behaviour
rationality
 Almost every human  Transactions that took place
behaviour as a result of laws in the market

NOW CONTRACTUAL RELATIONS IN BUSINESS:

 Discuss social problems vs. Sociological problems
 Social problems = problematic effects in society
 Who defines social problems?
 Crime vs. deviance
 Sociology emerges only at a ‘certain time’, not always.

FOUR THEMES OF SOCIOLOGICAL CONCIOUSNESS:

1. DEBUNKING: Looking beyond, unmasking
- Art of mistrust
- Informal power structures.

2. UNRESPECTABILITY:
- Values
- Language

3. RELATIVIZATION:
- White man had the burden of equalizing the
natives.
- But this superiority complex fades with
modernization, surrounding culture situations. (No
Hierarchy – see things from their point of view )

4. COSMOPOOLITANISM:
 - Look at things from universal point of view.
- Broad minded and accepting
- Variety of explanations, anti-structure
- Take action to bring about the change and
progress.

THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

- C. wright
mills
 People feel trapped and unable to overcome troubles.
 The facts of contemporary history and also facts about the success
and failure of individual men and women.
 People are unaware of the kind of history, making that might take
part in.
 They cannot cope with personal troubles so as to control the
structural transformation that lie behind them.
 History now affects everyone.
 The any shaping of history now outpaces the ability people to
orient themselves in accordance with cherished values.
 They don’t need info and skills – they need quality mind that will
help them reason and achieve summations of what’s happening
around them.

 Sociological imagination: enables process or understand the larger

historical scene in terms of its meaning inner life and the external
career of an individual.
 The ability to, “think yourself away from the familiar routines of
everyday life” and look at them from an entirely new perspective.
 THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW
-Robert
Cotterrell
 Sociological imagination
 Too many laws now
 People detached from this concept
 Cumbersome, yet important legal system
 Just because a law exists, it can be utilized
 Impact/effect of law
- He says we shouldn’t be limited to this
- More beyond this assessment
- Study law as a social institution
- Just studying legal system will tell about place
- Law as mirror of society; Robert says this in s
different task.
Academic discipline (jurisprudence legal theory)

Normative system Law Practice (Black

letter study of law)

Way to establish (learning

tools/skills)

 Legal doctrine, tests = black letter version of law

 Lawyers who are practising law have their own image of law
 This is not the same as layman’s thoughts.
 For lawyers, it is about the rigid result and principles of law
Question: what is positivism?

 Process through which law has been made.

 Sources content
 Fundamental shifts using theories and methods of social sciences
to enrich law
 Law is part of subject matter of socio
 Rise of inter preterits perspective
 Human behaviour can’t be studied with objectivity and positivity
 Try to study it by their own perspective
 Empathetic understanding

QUESTION: WHAT IS LEGAL INTERPRETISM?

 Ideas of morality, bringing about justice.
 Laws have social context, they don’t arise in vacuum.
 Come about by social scientific research and enquiry.

BROWN vs. BOARD OF EDUCATION

o The doll test
o Race was such an important mark of identity.
SOCIAL CONTROL:

- Things/ means that control our human behavior

- Processes as well as sources that ensure that people behave in a
certain manner
- To ensure widespread conformity
- State is an imp. source of social control (macro)
 - Family, peer pressure = (macro)
- Sanctions Positive

Negative
Approval
i) Physical sanctions: violence used to ensure people behave in a
certain way
- Threat of violence always works >_<
ii) Economic sanctions: pay fines levied on us ( -_-)
iii) Social sanctions: expelling people from your ‘group’,
ostracizing, ridiculing, gossiping
- Again, fear of being judged.
*two imp. types of social sanctions: a) Guilt
b) Shame
SHAME SOCIETY GUILT SOCIETY

-Fear of being publicly shamed leads -People

conform because of guilt felt
to behaving in conformity. internally.
-External sanction. -Internal sanction.
-Japan -USA

*Peter Benger
-Engage in visualization to understand social control.
 CULTURE

- culture associated with cultivation.

- growth/development of the mind.
Q. What is the meaning of ‘being cultured’?
- culture = total way of life of a group of people.
* E.B. Tyler: Culture refers to that complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as a member of a society.
- all basic assumptions and orientations which influence our behaviors
and thoughts but not necessarily determine them.
* culture is learned.
- map which helps us to survive.
* Clifford Geertz: Humans are unfinished animals.
* culture is shared.
- and passed on across generations
Culture- i) Material aspect
ii) Non-material aspect.

MATERIAL CULTURE NON-

MATERIAL CULTURE

-clothes, technology. -Norms, customs,

laws, religion.
-tangible. -intangible.
-evolves rapidly. -doesn’t evolve fast.

*William Ogburn: Culture lag- non material culture will always lag
behind material culture.
-intellectual property O_o
-WIPO (UN), UNESCO
-Traditional knowledge vs. traditional cultural expression (TK & TCE)
-Trad. Culture: inherited and accumulated over time.
-TCE: performances.
-ICH = intangible Cultural Heritage (Ramleela)
(Baul Music)
-cultural identity.
-cultural shock.
-cultural relativism (see prev. notes)
vs.
-Ethonocentrism ( chauvinistic approach)
-Cultural genocide: the stolen generation ( no. of children belonging to
native Australian families abducted and raised by white Australians- to
wipe out aboriginals)
-National Sorry Day :’)
*But cultural relativism: does it justify honour killings at all? ( -_-)
-cultural defence in criminal law.
- People v. Kimura (1985) “Japan”
- Hmong (1985) “Laos”

ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

1. Norms– i) Folkways
ii) Mores
iii) Laws
-Folkways: Lowest order f norms, evolved in society guide us in
our dialy lives.
Not wrong/sinful, but we’re ‘expected’ to live like that.
-Mores: more stringent rules.
Telling us what to do & what not to do.
 Cultural prohibition (incest, cannibalism)
Q. Is incest illegal in India?
-Laws: Most formal rules
Accepted by authorities and institutions.
*William Sumner: Folkways - individual level = habits.
- Social level= customs when ‘social good’ ways
becomes attached to folkways, it
transforms to mores.
- not all mores are laws, as laws ≠ morality
-he says that laws must reflect morality and mores, otherwise there is no
point of law
-No universal concept of “law”, “rights”
-Legal change leading to cultural change seems to be problematic in his
p.o.v.

2. Values

-inherent ideas and beliefs.

-our own standards of what is good & bad.

3. Symbols

-anything by which we can represent ourselves.

*language = most imp. Symbolic system.
- material or non-material.

Flag Language
*Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: our language actually limits our understanding
of the world around us.
-structure of language: understanding of the world.
-Navajo community: trying to change language ( -_-)
“cancer”= wound that does not heal
-hence they don’t take any kind of treatment.
*sub system of culture- Sub culture ( a particular culture which exists
within culture of large community, eg, Football clubs) Real Madrid vs.
Atletico Madrid, East Bengal vs. Mohan Bagan
- Counter culture (sub culture which totally opposes
the dominant culture) 1960s counter culture movement USA,
Woodstock.
Q. Does the IS (ISIS/ISIL) represent a sort of counter culture
movement, or is it just a form of mindless terrorism?
*Scott Atran: Studies violence of groups, and why people are attracted
to such groups.
-ISIS is biggest e.g of counter culture.
-something ‘new’ and totally against current times, hence people are
attracted to this ‘glorious cause’.
-counter culture possibly only in multi-culture society.
-non-multiculture countreis= Japa (monoculture)
CONFORMITY V NON-CONFORMITY
Non-Conformity: behaviour different from conformity i.e. which
opposes natural behaviour in society.
Q. Is deviance the same as Non-Conformity?
- lot of scholar don’t differentiate
- but deviance is @ a high level than Non-Conformity
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
Q. how is crime different from deviance?
-Crime = breaking Laws
-Deviance = going against norms
-they are different as not all norms = laws
- not all crimes are deviant.
-in early times, people thought who deviate or commit crimes are
spiritual / Magical/ possessed
-Scientific Explanation:
1. Classical School Within Criminology
* Jeremy Bentham
* Cesare Beccaria
- Humans behave in criminal ways because they chose to do so
-No external factor
-Individual and his free will- pleasure seeking
-Let’s make it difficult for individuals to make that choice – MAKE
LEGAL SYSTEM SO STRICT.
-Certainty of Punishment – Association has to more in individual’s mind
- Severity of Punishment
2. Positivist School Within Criminolgy
-Empirical Outlook
- Objectively understand stuff
-Make Universal Laws
-Biological explanations of crime- certain physiological features which
connect with who commits an why commits crime.
* Cesare Lombroso
-Prisoners had ape-like features.
- criminals have missed a step in evolution
* Sheldon
Body types i) Fleshy people (endomorphs)
ii) Thin (ectomorphs)
iii) Muscular/ Active (Mesomorphs)
- Police caught only these (iii) who looked capable of committing
crime, not others (i) (ii)
3. Psychological schools within criminology
- Inborn, no empathy with people built- free personalities
- IQ determines inclination towards committing crime
- “Blue Collar Crimes” generally, not “White Collar Crimes”
- Treatment so that they would refrain from committing crimes
* Lobotomy
How Sociological theory moved away
- Look at external Social factors
 Functionalism
*E Durkheim
-All societies have crimes committed in them
- How crime has a function is:
i) Boundary Maintenance
- Differentiates b/w good and bad
- Public Punishments brings about social unity and act as a
deterrence social solidarity
ii) Doesn’t allow society to stagnate
-Innovative as makes society adapt to new things
-“Today’s crime can anticipate tomorrow’s morality”
- Phase of anomie (normalessness) in modern societies

*Robert Merton
 -Feels that anomy =breakdown of norms- Means and Goals
Means (Reality Check) – Goals
Education -Job
Hard Work -Money
Contacts -Status Position
Background (Inheritance)-Success

-Not everybody has access to these means

-“The American Dream: Rags to Reaches”
- Different rkn that we have :
i) Conformity: I want these goals and hence I will follow approved
means as far as I can. Means (right tick) Goals ( wrong tick)
ii) innovation : I will reject the means but subscribe to goals.
Means (wrong tick) Goals ( right tick). “illegitimate means”
iii)Ritualism: I will follow all the means when I know goals are
unattainable. Means (right tick) Goals (wrong tick)
iv) Retreatism: Fuck all. Rejects of the Society.
Means (wrong tick) Goals (wrong tick)
v) Rebellion : I’m not happy. Want to substitute means.
Means (wrong tick) Goals (wrong tick)

- He feels that the innovators are mainly the criminals.

Q. even when the people have means, why do they indulge in
crimes?
- Relative deprivation: Feeling of lack with reference to some
group around oneself.

 * SUB CULTURE EXPLANATIONS

-Limitation of Merton’s theory: goals have been generalized too
much.
-This explanation tells how people have different means and goals
within every culture.

*Cohen
 -Identification: Working class (young) boys mostly engage in
crimes.
-Status Frustration
-Sub Culture groups form (in schools) =Deviant gangs
-Status within that gang is given a lot of importance….”heroic”

-The 3 responses:
i) College Boys- Merton’s conformists. “Good boys”
ii) Corner Boys-“ Addicted” Withdraw into their own groups. No
direct acts of violence.
iii) Delinquent Boys: Actually engage in in criminal behaviour.

*Cloward and Ohlin

- Just because you don’t have means does not mean you’ll enter
into a life of crime.
- Opportunity Structure: not everyone has the “opportunities” to
commit crimes or become criminals.
- Adult criminals needed to serve as role model.

Q. Why only working class young boys are identified as one

committing crimes?
-Policy intervention
-Individuals need to be given educational/ vocational training and
social skill training.

Micro-Level Perspective = INTERACTIONIST

- Whether we are “labelled” as criminal.
- In what contact it is looked @ as “criminal”
- Legal sense vs Moral sense
- Not inherent quality of act tags it as “criminal”, rather, hoe it is
looked at.
Q. Who labels these?
Formal Informal
 Police Family
Judiciary Friends
Psychiatrists Society
-Shaming- 1. Individual Deterrence
2. General Deterrence
- Post labelling behaviour = Negative Consequences
- “Self Fulfilling prophecy”: Beliefs – Behaviour
- Continuous enforcement = people react to the label, individual is
condemned.
- Futile for individual to even try to reform
- No other path left to choose
- Feelings of isolation, and then acceptance
-Find relief/ refuge in like-minded people i.e. others who have been
shunned by society.
* Edwin Lemert
i) Primary Deviance
- We rationalise it, justify it
- Everyone does it
-Not really “crime”
ii) Secondary Deviance
-Public Shunning
-Powerful labelling
-Becomes a part of identity: “career criminal”
- “Matter Status” – Exclusion of all other identities.

-Movement towards medicalisation of Deviance

- Perverse/ Morally problematic – Sick
-Delinquency- Health
-Shunning- Sympathising

- Labelling theory tends to take away role of deviant itself

DECRIMINALIZING
*John Braithwaite
-Labelling leads to more crime, rather than deters it.
i) this integrative shamming (USA): Increase in crime as people are
actively cut off from support system. More contact with “Criminals”
caste out only takes part criminal. Sub Culture
ii) Re-integrative Shaming – After Condemning, society works
towards bringing (Japan) “criminal” back, i.e.
reforming.
Repeated comes decrease.

Social Learning Theory

 Agents of society which are supposed to send messages of

conformity, instead create nuisance.
 Peer, work people, Neighbours

Conflict School

 Conflict in society – war of resources(money, power, etc)

 Conflict = competition
 who belong to this group: feminists, *marxists(criminology) –
capitation = crime creating system i)Working class –
protest – crime
 ii)Statistics Lie
iii)but crime rates are going up

*Stuart Hall

 Mugging : huge importance by media

 Always existed, why this sudden spotlight ?
 Brits govt facing crisis of authority, they want to focus attention
away.
 Moral Panic

*New Left Realism

WC=Criminals, but predominantly, WC=also victims

 intraclass crimes
 community policing works best in these cases

Right : Classical School

 everyone commits crimes, not just wc

 Social bond / control

*Traviss Hirschi

i) Attachment :is strong , we constantly think what people percieve.

ii) Committment : to various ththings we have invested in already;
censor behaviour due to fear of messing up the years of hard work
iii)Involvement : No time / inclination to indulge in crime and other
deviant activities.
iv) Belief : when individuals accepts the norms they’ve been taught
Limitations

 If the 4 factors don’t work, then legal stipulation is not strong

enough
 why do we follow laws then?

Right Realism

 Let’s make it difficult for everyone to commit crimes.

 Increase police / military authorities.
 Increase surveillance
 Situational crime prevention(SCP) : Difficult o access crimes in an
area, by sitting up CCTVs, biometrics, alarms, etc.

*Broken window Experiment – vandalism in all neighbourhoods,

irrespective of “status”.

 Zero tolerance policing – No concession even for minor acts.

 3 Strike law – Insane, as well as insane results –high prison
population in the USA- more taxation
 Stand Your Ground laws – Anyone, not just police – extreme
self- defence strategy – used by whites against black mostly.

Role of gender in crime

 Feminist movement in the 1970’s

 How can you define feminism?
 Concerned with issues of subordination of women
  Multiple kinds of subordination(economics sphere, family sphere ,
education, etc.)
 Not just belong to “women”, but other classes - as caste, class,
etc.
 Individual & collective doing away with subordination

* Sexual Minorities : Don’t find space within majority LGBT, Intersex,

etc.

 Homosexuals – socially deviant, hence victims of crimes – case of

public display of their orientation
*Women –> victims –> considered ‘invisible’

WOMEN AS OFFENDER

 Mainstream = malestream
 Prison population : > 90% males
< 10% females

Q| Why this gender gap?

Q| Is crime a ‘gendered’ thing?

Women : shoplifting, petty theft, non-violent, non-cooperate.

Men : Violent

Q| Do statistics lie, or do women actually commit fewer crimes?

*Otto Pollack

 women lie better

  more deceit, hence get away with crimes
 women used to dealing with menstruation and child birth, hence
they’re used to hiding stuff
 chivalry thesis: police , judiciary all lenient

 Gender Contract : Acceptable or women to be impulsive and

irrational when men are supposed to be reasonable and calm.

* Feminists

 Believe that women commit fewer crimes due to the high degrees
of social control
 Women have lesser crime-committing opportunities
 safety and security : reason given for different curfew hours for
males & females
 women = more submissive, passive naive; Men = Outspoken,
active.
 Women have to deal with being doubly deviant

* Frances Heiensohn

 Deviance from traditional gender roles

 for being double deviant – treated more securely
 women looked @ being psychologically balanced
 when opportunities increase, women crimes also increase [when
they go out to work more and more]
 Rate of juvenile crimes by women has also increased

WOMEN AS VICTIMS
 Specifically targetted crimes against women (rape, dowry,
trafficking)
  Sexual crimes – more than victims the FEAR – leads to women
policing their own behaviour
 Tradition:”Victim blame”, “Invited trouble”, “Asking for it”
 Psychology: a few bad apples who do such crimes – unique / rare
Feminists degree: Say that it is a structure
phenomenon, and patriarchy is the root
cause
 Men superior and women inferior

RAPE

 NCRB statistic : 90% of reported cases tend to be by criminals

known to the victims
 incest rape (increased over the years) in India
 Only 10% of actual rape cases are reported in India
 Cases unreported due to – Shaming, Victim blaming, etc
 women expected to be “pure” - virginity tests – to show that the
child will be the husband’s only after marriage, and not someone
else’s
 Humiliating ‘medical tests’
 Judicial process forces them to relieve their experience, and this is
traumatic
 There are laws against rape, but the norms prevent one from
accessing justice

*Rameeza Bee Case(Independent India – Police Rape)

Whom do you go to then if the “protectors” misuse their power?

Q| Can Prostitutes be raped?

*Mathura Rape Case (Tukaram vs State of Maharashtra)
Just because she doesn’t scream, does that mean she consented?
 Consent != submission
 Criminal law amendment(1983) : “the burden of proof shifts from
the victims t the accused, but only in cases of custodial rape”

* Maya Tyagi case(1980)

 “The women’s testimony would be accepted because a woman

would not lie about something as grave as this”
 Earlier personal issue(Family honour argument)
 Rape = public issue
 caste, community start to play a role in rape crimes – more than
gender

* Bhanwari Devi Case(Rajasthan) - Vishaka Guidelines – Sexual

Harrashment @ workplace

How can an upper caste male rape a lower caste female?

 Emptiness Of Judicial Reforms

 Sec 375,376
 2013 Amendment “any kind of non-consented sexual act,
including any object, any penetrations”
 Personhood of victim now being respected

Q| What is aggravated rape?

  Situation in relationship of faith, when accused holds some
authority over victims – Marital Rape not recognised. Marriage
assumes consent.
 But recognised stalking, acid attacks

Sample Questions
Q.1 Accounts of children raised in long term isolation demonstrate:
1. that the ability to speak is only biological
2. that effective long socialisation can occur is social isolation
3. that socialisation is not important for identity development
4. that effective social interaction is necessary for socialisation.
Q.2 Peter Berger points out 4 motives/themes of sociological consequences.
They include:
1. Respectability and Externality
2. Positivism and objectivity
3. Debunking and unrespectability
4. Morality and generalisation
Q.3 William Chambliss’ study on the English law of vagrancy shows how laws
initially serve the powerful economic interests of feudal landlords and later
shifted to protect the interests of the new merchant class. This illustrates which
of the sociological perspectives closely:
1. Consensus Perspective
2. Conflict Perspective
3. Interactionist perspective
Q.4 The understanding that the laws enacted in accordance with established
procedures are legitimate and are to be obeyed is most closely associated with:
1. Legal interpretivism
2. Legal positivism
3. A natural law perspective
Q.5 Mores and Folkways are terms associated with which sociologist
1. Karl Marx
2. Durkheim
3. William Sumner
4. John Fuller
Q.6 Re-socialisation can broadly be understood as:
1. Learning to play a role as a mental rehearsal for some future activity.
2. Access to social assets that promote socialisation beyond economic
means
3. The process of discarding values and behaviours unsuited to new
circumstances and replacing them with new beliefs and values.
Q.7 The informal norms which guide our daily interactions and behaviours:
1. Mores
2. Folkways
3. Regulations
Q.8 “ An order can be called law where it is externally guaranteed by the
probability that coercion to bring about conformity will be applied by a staff of
people especially ready for that purpose”. This definition can be attributed to:
1. Durkheim
2. Marx
3. Weber
4. Sutherland
Q.9 Which concept involves seeing how personal troubles and public issues are
related:
1. Anomie
2. Structure
3. Agency
4. Sociological Imagination

Types of Crimes
 Victimless Crimes
1. Can be crimes against self. For example- Voluntary prostitution,
gambling, drinking
 Legislation of
Prostitution

Health
Leads to
problems can be
regulation
reported

Law vs. Morality debate

Important viewpoints put forward “on Liberty” by John Stuart Mill. It is not the
business of the law to interfere in individual independence.
Law can act as a constraining agent only when others are harmed.

Lord Devlin (1958-59): Homosexuality against Wolfenden committee on

criminalising homosexuality or not.
1. Criticizes the committee’s report and also disagrees with John Stuart’
2. He states that there should be a common morality restricting individual’s
activity
3. Against uncontrolled individual activity
4. Will lead to chaos and social disintegration
H.L.A Hart – Devlin debate
- Hart criticizes Devlin and Durkheim’s views on morality holding society
together

WHITE COLLAR CRIMES

1. Involves economic gain and professional gain
2. Elitist crimes
3. “suit crimes”
4. These crimes are non-violent.
5. Involves a hige amount of assets and money
6. These are greed based crimes as opposed to “need based” crimes
The term “white collar crime” used by Edwin Sutherland”
-Crimes committed by people of high society during the course of their
occupation
1. Talks about these crimes in the context of differential association theory
2. Unlawful and greedy behaviour in the business world as common
3. Certain businesses are called “crime-zones” i.e. which tend to produce
criminals.
4. Very sophisticated and technically organized.
5. Specialized knowledge required.

BLUE COLLAR CRIMES

1. Street crimes, need based crimes
2. As a result, it is very difficult to detect
3. Establishing victims is also difficult.
4. There are many victims and are generally diffused
5. Stigma attached is very low

“The Santhanam committee”- on white collar crimes (in India)

Edwin Sutherland pointed out that white collar crimes are a part of organized
crimes

Organized crime THE GODFATHER

1. Hierarchy is important.
2. Operates like any other business (although illegal goods) for eg- Mafia
crimes
3. Runs along family community networks
4. Involves a lot of violence
5. May involve active involvement of law also (like police, judiciary)
6. “Parallel economy”
7. Parallel illegal system
8. Runs like an orthodox business house
9. Drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering.
MAFIA (Italian American)

 _____________
 not intrinsic to America.
  imposed by force due to high levels of immigration.
 works like a business (exchange of illegal goods and services)
 region based -territory (docks under control of organised crime groups, always)
 control of price flow
 which group supplies what

NOW

 traditional association with territory changes- now working across borders = transnational
organised crimes
 globalization of crimes
 transnational organised crimes flourish in weak/failed states (says the UN)

PUNISHMENT

 negative sanctions imposed – adverse impact on person who’s engaging in such activities –
unpleasant
 should be actively imposed (by external authority), cannot be natural consequence
 self-flagellation
 proportion- history of punishments
 there must be a link between the act and the punishment
 earlier, punishment was given in a public name i.e. public showing, public spectacle
 ‘deviance increases social solidarity’- Durkheim

Objectives of punishment:

1. Deterrence
2. Retribution
3. Reformation
4. Prevention

RETRIBUTION

 Past oriented theory (deterrence is concerned with future activities whereas this focuses on
past activities)
 Moral blame attached
 ‘an eye for an eye’
 Generalizing revenge
 Just desserts (what one deserves)
 Retribution not equal to revenge
 Public condemnation (law commission’s justification)
 “the punishment of a crime should not be seen as revenge, rather collective societal
disapproval.”
-lord Devlin
  by acknowledging public anger, we are reducing vigilante justice.

REFORMATION

 Punishment as therapy
 Understanding humane grounds (emerged during era of enlightenment)
 Sinister outlook: people after reform are ‘available for useful activities’
 State able to control individual activity

DETERRENCE

 Classical school of criminology

 Individuals assumed to be rational actors
 But, individuals are not always rational!
1. General deterrence: deters general majority
2. Individual deterrence: deters individuals

PREVENTION

 Physically limiting the ability to commit crime, making it impossible for someone to actually
commit crimes
 Society itself needs to be protected by individuals
 Incapacitation, isolation.
 But prisons= schools of crimes

HISTORY OF PRISONS

 Early 19th century, Europe- Britain “dungeon”

 Prisons- waiting rooms, till trials & convictions
 Pre-enlightenment
 Debt- prison term (not punishment)
 Pits dug up, people throw in, died in there
 With enlightenment- modern prisons
 Justice Atholl
- Early prisons (before enlightenment)
- No surveillance
- Prisoners kept together
- Parties for each other, visitors invited
- Insanitary condition: jail fever- more people died to this- doctors refused to visit
 “ easier to stay drunk all the time rather than facing realities”
Work houses / poor houses
|
 People who were labelled
 All who could not find work sent here
  Food and shelter guaranteed
 Idleness- criminal minds
 Poor, disabled, criminal offenders, mentally ill people, elderly, orphans. ALL WERE PUT
HERE & MADE TO WORK AS MUCH AS THEY COULD
 Emergence of prisons, asylums, hospital/clinics, orphanages, etc – groups of people being
segregated rather than being clubbed like before
 Establishment of criminology, medicine child care, psychology – after enlightenment
“distinct subjects”

Q. why is enlightenment thought?

Ans. Specialization.
# Finally

 Prisons as places where people were kept when they needed to be punished
 Denial of life not as important
 Denial of liberty greater effect
 No use of methods of torture, no more public spectacle
 Making prisoners “useful” rather than killing them off.

MICHEL FOUCAULT

 Prison emerging from idea of PANOPTICON (google it)

(Jeremy Bentham)

 “ideal prison”
 Circular tower, individual rooms with windows, guard at top, able to see everyone, but
prisoners not able to see guard always.
 Principle: prisoners do not know when they are watched and when not – constant surveillance
 Self-regulation
 “ we are now living in a disciplinary society”
 Biometric, CCTV
 Invisibility – complete visibility

MANU

 Prisons should be located on the sides of major roads

 Foucault says: now soul is targeted and not body

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

 Punishment through imprisonment not successful as seen from rise in prison population
 Not enough space to reform
 More interaction with criminal agents
 Skills not taught which can be used in the outside world
 Popular from 1970
 Principal stakeholders in crime: 1) offender
2) victim
3) criminal justice system
 Restore thing to how they had been pre-crime, or in a better position
 Let victim & community also have a role, rather than only working with offender
 Bring back the trust!
 Canada, Australia
 Victim -------------------- offender mediation
| |
Shares what he’s been through Talks about his motivation

 Done because offender doesn’t realize what harm he has done, hence, need to be
communicated
 Family group conference
- Families of victims talk (used for juvenile offender)
 Sentencing circle (victim, offender, major members of community, object passed around, and
person holding it gives testimony)
 Canadian research shows restorative justice works better in cases of major crimes.

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