SOC313H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Security Guard, Social Control, Peer Support
Social Control Lecture 2 Youth Gangs
• Social Norms:
- expectations of conduct that regulate human behaviour and social relations
- vary in terms of acceptance, enforcement, transmission, required conformity
- not what people do, but what people should do
- proscriptive-things you should not do/prescriptive- things you should do
- sanctions- when people break social norms
• Norm Promotion
- who decides what social norms are
- an ability to successfully promote particular norms to the exclusion of other, competing
norms
- social judgment of disvaluement represent a core component of the concept of
deviance and social control
• Social Power:
- the ability to make choices by virtue of social control over political, economic or social
resources
- powerful people often define standards for deviance and social control.
• Social control:
- This how we deal with behaviour that violate social norms
- Deviant behaviours represent undesirable acts which result in sanctions or reactions to
the behaviour or condition
- The nature and strength of the reactions vary with the deviant conduct.
• Processes of social control:
- Internalization of group norms norms that are learned and accepted
- Overall socialization process that motivates members to conform to group expectations
- People generally learn mechanisms of social control, like customs, traditions, beliefs,
attitudes, and values, through interaction with others.
• Processes of social control:
- Sanctions- social reactions to behaviour
- Negative sanctions are punishments which discourage deviant behaviour
- Positive sanctions are rewards that encourage following social norms
- Can be informal or formal.
- Informal→ unofficial actions by individuals or groups. More powerful than formal in
some situations.
- Formal→ organized systems of reactions from specialized agencies and organizations
- Agents of social control: people are in the roles that confers authority in regards to
social control i.e. mall cop, security, teacher.
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• Youth gangs:
- Group of at least 3-5 youth
- Self-formed association of peers (often with a group name or group identity)
- Typically consists of young people that self identifies as a group and perceived by others
as being a distinct group, involved in a incidence that has a negative response
- Mutual interests and symbols of belonging and special modes of communication
- Leadership structures that has more less defined roles
- There is control of, or claim to, a specific neighbourhood territory or turf in which the
group operates
• Vulnerability:
- risk factors: previous delinquency, drug use/already involved in serious crime, inequality
and social disadvantage, indigenous youth, if they feel helpless gang lifestyle may be
chosen as well.
• Motivations:
- Gang involvement can be seen as a source of:
- To fulfill unfilled needs
- protection
- goods& resources
- excitement and entertainment
- status
- empathy, support, belonging, family
- a mean to meet unfulfilled psychological, social and or economic needs.
- Sometimes a gang is the primary institution in the neighborhood
- Access point to drugs and alcohol
- Meeting new people
- A sense of belonging that they lack otherwise, source of identity.
• Scope:
- Types of behaviours: property offences, robbery, drug trafficking etc.
- Co-offender-mot serious offender, most of them were co-offenders
• Community impact:
- Culture of violence
- Social costs
- Impact on everyday life
- Justice and health care systems
- How people feel living in their neighbourhoods
- Lost potential for everyday citizens as well
• Member impact:
- Educational outcomes
- Employment outcomes
- Drug and alcohol exposure
- Teenage parenthood (unplanned)
Document Summary
Social control lecture 2 youth gangs: social norms: Expectations of conduct that regulate human behaviour and social relations vary in terms of acceptance, enforcement, transmission, required conformity. Not what people do, but what people should do. Proscriptive-things you should not do/prescriptive- things you should do: norm promotion. Powerful people often define standards for deviance and social control: social control: This how we deal with behaviour that violate social norms. Deviant behaviours represent undesirable acts which result in sanctions or reactions to the behaviour or condition. The nature and strength of the reactions vary with the deviant conduct: processes of social control: Overall socialization process that motivates members to conform to group expectations. People generally learn mechanisms of social control, like customs, traditions, beliefs, Internalization of group norms norms that are learned and accepted attitudes, and values, through interaction with others: processes of social control: Negative sanctions are punishments which discourage deviant behaviour.
