POLICING AND SOCIETY: A GLOBAL APPROACH
cumple if an adult were to be in seal relations with a person belo
of responsibility that would violate a more. The violant, if discovered is Way
punished both legally a long prison term) and socially labeling and shuning
are very important ones that have been codified that is, they have been written
and correctional authorities acting in the name of society. At the same time, the
in penal codes through legislation, and are enforced by the police, proto,
motes that are not awewe understand that we should not drink to ence
we were to do this at home and not in public and were reasonably quiet about
would not be subject to arrest by the police).
Deviance is behavior that is morboch folkways and more
an early age that it is de tempe someone who is speaking violation of a
and also that it is illegal to steal someone else's money (violation of more that has bem
codified as a low). Acts of device that are minor are generally dealt with info
people avoid the violach at him or her) while those that are mot
of
taken seriously and dealt with formally (arrest, charging, trial, sentencing prison tema
etc.). It is possible therefore to see that the police are in the business of dealing with me
forms of deviance that society has specifically codified in the form of criminal laws. A
of deviance that violate criminal laws (or crimes are deemed to be important enough
for society to join with the victim in the official reaction against the offender. This is the
reason why criminal cases are identified, for example, as "The state of California vera
Jones." This is because criminal deviance is seen as a violation against society,
From a legal perspective, there are other forms of deviance which are also codi
fied, but which the police do not deal with. given that they are only one cog in the
system of social control. These are violations of civil laws often involving conflich
between individuals living and interacting with each other in society. For example,
there are contractual disputes between landlords and tenants, or between employen
and employees. While the state is interested in settling these disputes, it does not take
the side of either party. If approached by one of them, the state arbitrates and renden
judgment finding for either the plaintiff (the complainer) or the defendant (the person
alleged by the former to have done something wrong). As a result, civil cases are
ally designated in the form "Hernandez versus Smith."
Returning to the forms of deviance that the police are specifically required to deal
with that is crimes, we can see that there are further divisions in terms of serio
ness) among these. Generally, societies accord the highest level of criminal sciousnes
to treason, for example, acts that involve the overthrow of the government and col
laborating with the enemy in times of war and hostility. Since it threatens the very
existence of the reacting government, it draws the most amount of reaction and pun
ishments are likely to be severe. More than likely, punishment for treason will include
seriousness is given to the acts designated as felonies. The third level of seriousness
consideration, and often imposition, of the death penalty. The next level of criminal
for misdemeanors. At the bottom of the heap are perty offenses, often called viola
tions. Differences in the seriousness with which these offenses are viewed also means
that there are differences in the police powers that go along with officially dealing with
various incidents that exemplify these levels of crime.
POLICE AND SOCIAL CONTROL
SO
T
be
Before moving away from the topic of where crime as a form of deviance fits
overall in the context of a society's culture and socialization, we should make two
associated observations. First, the police as a sector of the criminal justice system)
as we have seen, only one possible form of reaction to deviance. Others such as
priests and ministers (representing religion) as well as physicians and mental health
professionals (representing medicine) may also be (and historically have been pressed
into service in this social enterprise. The major difference between the police on the
one hand and religious and medical personnel on the other is that the police have a
monopoly over the use of force, extending to deadly force, in dealing with deviant
behavior (eg. Killing someone in a hostage situation), Clergy and medical profession
als are not allowed to use killing as a means of solving problematic situations and, in
fact, are encouraged to preserve life, to the extent possible.
For much of recorded history, crime was not distinguished from sin and evil, and
che dersy were the major group involved in dealing with human beings who were
lying cheating, Healing, killing each other, etc. Such behaviors involved moral judg.
ments of sinfulness, evil, and immorality from the formal representatives of various
religious traditions. Religious means of dealing with these problems took the forms of
torture, pain, and sometimes, death for the offender. They justified the utilization of
these cruelties on the assumption that the devil or some other evil spirits were the root
causes of the bad behavior in question
Peter Conrad and Joseph Schneider (1992) refer to the use of medical diagno-
ses for nonconforming behavior as the medicalization of deviance. Here, certain
forms of deviance, although resulting in criminal acts, are defined as arising out of an
individual's illness and pathology. This approach exists side by side with the current
conceptions that some forms of deviance are criminal and ought to be dealt with by
the police and the rest of the criminal justice system. This means that nowadays, rather
than (and also often in addition to arresting and ultimately punishing that individual
he or she is seen as needing to be treated for their sickness or ailment. Thus, someone
who steals to support his or her drug and/or excessive alcohol consumption habit, is
diagnosed and classified as needing specific counseling and medical treatment for their
promeness to dependence on these substances
Second, police reactions to acts of criminal deviance are not always uniform. For
example, the police, in order to arrest a drug seller, may ignore or even support the
drug usage of an informant. They may ignore the illegal and severe beating and assault
of a criminal suspect by a fellow police officer (see our discussion of Police Deviance in
Chapter 13) or those usually committed by persons of high social status (eg, Medicare
fraud by physicians). This means that reaction to criminal behavior is often subject to a
variety of contextual influences. Of course, everything else being equal, there are certain
crimesteg. homicide) that the police are going to react to in a much more forceful
manner than others (eg, vice and traffic offenses). It is possible to observe here that
even among crimes that are supposed to be major noem violations, there are levels of
seriousness in the responses they evoke. These are often based on perceptions shared by
members of a society about the seriousness of certain crimes as opposed to others. Some
demes of crimes, referred to as high consensus crimes (eg. crimes against persons
POLICING AND SOCIETY A GLOBAL APPROACH
that
later lower priority offenses, or low consensus crimes, are typically
public and the police are conflicted about and are controversial politically
offenses, gambling, prostitution, jaywalking, etc.). There is often die
whether these behaviors ought to be criminalined and whether police
to be expended in enforcing such controversial laws.
atrol
to
lated
SOCIAL CONTROL: PERSONAL, INFORMAL, FORMAL
Sociologists have shown that society inculcate values to its members through
of institutions that act as agencies of society in teachings modeling and
ing them to behave along expected lines. When we assimilate these values and
ance both large les murdering someone che or stealing their money and
according to the norms that flow from them, we are less likely to committee
wearing our doches backwards in public or cating mashed pots without
Sociologists refer to such transmissions of values and norms to individual mes
succesful socialization. This is the most efficient and effective form of control ove
unconscious rejection of deviant behavior is personal or self-control. An individu
who has been successfully socialized by society has developed an internal meches
that rejects outright the possibility of his or her engaging in lying, cheating, stealing
killing someone else. While it may be argued that self-control is not social, in the sea
of involving others, nevertheless it is the values and norms we learn from impormas
others that affect us so much that we censor or control our own behavior
However, as we know, personal control over deviant behavior sometimes does not
happen. If socialization proved to be successful in every case, we would not be calling
about dealing with various major and minor forms of deviance, including crimin
behavior. To ensure that those who will not or cannot personally control in the
words, those who would contemplate) the possibility of engaging in deviant behavior
another level of control exists in all societies. This level is known as informal social
control. Notice the two features of this term. First, it includes the word "social"
means that at this level of control, it is no more a personal matter, others in die
have become involved. Next, there is the implication of a lack of formality. This man
that it occurs at an interpersonal, interactional level between people who know ead
other. This level of control occurs when we do not do something deviant because
fear the negative judgments of those who are close or dear to us (what sociologie
would refer to as significant others), for example, parents, spouses, ministers, teachers
conventional friends, etc. We, therefore, do not engage in deviance since we generale
want to be thought of in a positive way by those who are important to us.
Obviously, if all people avoided doing anything deviant because they
of the negative evaluations of significant others whenever they personally contemplare
control. Again, note two characteristics of the term. First, while it occurs socially, it
FOLICE AND SOCIAL CONTROL
certainly not informalno. Formal social control means that particular individu
als and is designed to maintain and order in society become involved
in dealing with deviant behavior. These dies include the police (dealing with
criminal deviance), mental hospitals (dealing with mental illness, and others. Us
ally, these agencies operate on a fairly long-term basis and use personnel (eg, police
officers who have a monopoly of powers in reacting to or dealing with a specific form
of deviance, that is, crimes
Let us we an example that will be familiar to most college students to illustrate the
three levels of social control. Think about the way you and your classmates approach
the inue of cheating on tots. For some (we hope, all the readers of this text) cheat
ing on test would be unthinkable. This is personal control at work. Others would
he tempted to cheat, but would fear the negative perceptions of their professor (we
know some of you will find this fear of your instructor downright humorous) or their
parents if they were caught. Now we have informal social control operating. Yet others
among your desmates, would not worry about these negative perceptions, but would
be deterred from cheating because they would think about the official consequences
if they were caught. They would be punished by their college or university after disci
plinary hearing and given failing grades in that course which would then become part
of their academic records. Notice the involvement of designated authorities (heads of
departments, college deans, student disciplinary committee, registrars) in the formal
process of dealing with this form of deviance
It should be dear from the above, that the police function as agents of the state
(Meloni, 2009) and as authorities of formal social control who deal with particular
forms of deviances the violations of major norms for mores) that have been legally
codified and are officially enforced by the criminal justice system. At the same time,
the police do not have a completely free hand in democracies (as opposed to totalitar-
ian and authoritarian countries) to control crime and do wway with deviance using any
method or means. As Berg (1992: 3) puts it. "Free societies depend upon a balance
between a person's ability to act independently and without fear of official reprisal and
person's responsibility not to infringe upon other's abilities to act independently as
well." This balance is held ever so gingerly, in the hand of that society's police.
POLICING AS FORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL: THREE
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
In Chapter 1, we described three perspectives that sociologists use to analyze and make
sense of the social phenomena that exist in any given society. Let us take cach one of
these in turn
Functionalists are interested in analyzing what any given social institution or
practice contributes to that society's continued survival and functioning. From their
point of view, having the police around allows ordinary members of society to operate
in an orderly way by dealing with criminal deviants and other trouble makers who
refuse to follow the rules and repulations of the community that they live in. Given
Ric
POLICING AND SOCIETY A GLOBAL APPROACH
cultural values
that the police is the only policy available and operating twenty for
day and days work dealing with a host of problems and is that the
or will not, they are therefore, wit to the smooth functioning of so
police contribute to social order by making sure that people meet intentional
sations in everyday life gobeying traffic rules, not robbing orang
presence and investigation leading to the arrest and punishment of criminals. The
cities and by carrying out other activities such as patrol (a visible reminder
activities affirmand the importance of social norms and strengthen impone
Conflict theorists believe that society is composed of competing groups and
penerally interested in which group benefits from social arrangements, as they
If society is in which various groups fight for the control of care
who really benefits from having the police around as "social controllers and be
almos? Conflict theorists will identify the powerful in society as the one
when and to main from having all forms of social control, particularly those invoking
the police. Inequalities in surveillance, arest, and in what constitutes police price
we major concerns of conflict theorists who therefore conclude that the police are
impartial but biased in their enforcement of the law. Typical police activities al
always target the poor and the powerless, people who are often the primary focus
tempes at controlling deviant behavior. For example, a homeless vagrant, who
drunk and snoring in a library, is likely to be removed by the police when complaine
are received from the library staff. However, the police will not for cannot do the
same to the drunken president of a neighboring bank who is behind closed do
in his office. At a more concrete level of regulating individual behavior, is there any
satisfactory legal reason why possession of "rock cocaine" (generally associated with
the poor and minority groups) is likely to be punished more severely than possession
of powder cocaine" (associated with the rich and majority group)? Needless to say,
police are much more active and interested in stopping questioning, and arresting sus
pectod minority drug traffickers. Reiner (1991) notes that various studies of the police
have shown that most of their work consists of maintaining order in public places
especially among the less privileged members of society. Thus, the social control of
behavior overall, and the involvement of the police, always takes the form of a dagget
aimed on behalf of the elite toward the powerless. Parks (1970: 76) notes, for example
that the "morality enforced by the police) is always the morality of those in power and
it is primarily enforced upon those without power."
The third sociological perspective, interactionism, pays attention to the
microlevel of human behavior. For them, the many interactions between individu
members and social control personnel, such as the police, make
of social control. Thus, situational characteristics are very important in figuring our
up
the
how social control of deviant behavior takes place and specifically, how the police
operate in their day-to-day encounters with the citizens. Wiley and Hudik (1970
test a variety of interactionisms that focuses on exchange relations in encounters
berween the police and the public. Exchange theory holds that interactions between
human beings involve various costs and rewards for the parties involved. The study
experience
Purchase answer to see full
attachment