LS327 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Quality Control, Individual And Group Rights, Herbert Annesley Packer
6 Mar 2016
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Lecture notes: intro, recurring themes in the course. Policing in a democratic society differs from different societies. Police powers are limited, we monitor and control them where police have free reign through civilian and government agencies & through citizens via complaints of police abuse of authority. Idea that police is one of many agencies of social control, from point of sociological view there are many: family, school, religion, work environment, peers. All these socialize us into law-abiding & conforming behaviors. Informal social control is seen to be more effective vs. police being the formal social control agencies. Police necessary when other agencies have failed. Sociologists believe that formal control is not effective because people are more likely to be afraid of losing our jobs and loved ones vs. being arrested & charged. Another theme: policing increases government intervention in our lives. Citizens have handed more responsibility to government, healthcare, welfare etc.
