SOC 3750 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Erving Goffman, Temporality, Data Analysis
17 Oct 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOC 3750
LECTURE 5
DISCRETION
Dictionary: The ability to decide on the basis of one own judgment.
Dimensions
- Knowledge (usually partial) typically.
- Temporality (reflect on the past, anticipate the future) split second.
- TPower (depending on our position)
Police Discretion
- Can mean many things.
- Arrive late or on time?
- Complete paper work or procrastinating?
- Arrest or not?
- Patrol one neighbourhood or not.
- Scholars have focused on selective enforcement. (They are not compelled to
enforce the law technically)
- We need to look at factors that determine whether the law will be enforced
(usually arrest or not to arrest) How are they implicated into the outcome.
- Better understanding of how policing is flexible on the spot
Cultural Perception: legitimate policing involves routine, consistent enforcement of
law.
- Legality/illegality distinction is straightforward
- Violation of law compels officers to act (assumption)
- Mask of full enforcement (insight of why the public think they operate in a
formal manner on the spot) They need to show the picture of that the law is
legal and illegal at all times in specific circumstances.
- Think Goffman (front stage mask of full enforcement, MOFE) Backstage is full
of discretion
A full enforcement pose relieves police officers and police agencies from having to
reveal or defend the bases for their discretionary decisions.
Organizationally functional
- Obfuscating discretion means less scrutiny
- Prevents claims of bias policing (bias implies discretion)
- Other organizations present masks of efficiency and competence
- Mask of competence think of those who work in the hospital.
- Obfuscate inefficiency, incompetence or error.
Sociological Reasons
- Discretion is a function of the law
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Dictionary: the ability to decide on the basis of one own judgment. Temporality (reflect on the past, anticipate the future) split second. Scholars have focused on selective enforcement. (they are not compelled to enforce the law technically) We need to look at factors that determine whether the law will be enforced (usually arrest or not to arrest) how are they implicated into the outcome. Better understanding of how policing is flexible on the spot. Cultural perception: legitimate policing involves routine, consistent enforcement of law. Violation of law compels officers to act (assumption) Think goffman (front stage mask of full enforcement, mofe) backstage is full of discretion. A full enforcement pose relieves police officers and police agencies from having to reveal or defend the bases for their discretionary decisions. Prevents claims of bias policing (bias implies discretion) Other organizations present masks of efficiency and competence. Obfuscate inefficiency, incompetence or error. (cid:498)mask of competence(cid:499) think of those who work in the hospital.
