SOC326H5 Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Criminal Justice, City, Norm Social
SOC326H5
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Origins of the Police I
January 16, 2018
Two theories on the police – both needed to understand contemporary problems of the police
• use of force (coercion)
o force comes from Weber’s theory of the world
• morality/social values
o implicit use of Durkheim view of social views
Weber and Durkheim: some context
• Weber: bureaucratization, religion, science and politics [ and their intersections]
o central question is “how is it that modern contemporary capitalism took hold in some countries
and not others?” – reflected in the protestant ethic where he concluded that Protestantism is
fundamental to the view of life and outlook on work which intertwined with the telnets of
capitalism [reservation, production]
o Weber sees society as going through three phases: traditional authority, charismatic authority,
bureaucratic authority
o Bureaucratic authority – society largely functions through various institutions which already
operate according to their own internal system
o policing is one of many institutions in society – main aim of police is to serve as a magnet for the
force and violence in a society – they are given the monopoly on violence; given to them and
entrusted to them [the legalized monopoly on the use of force]
o moral ambiguity facing police officers – have to coerce individuals to promote morality and order
o leads to belief of police as apart and different from others – the implication of this is a fairly
pessimistic view as they are a needed force and one that need to be closely monitored as to not
overreach bounds
• Durkheim: social solidarity, social facts, work, and culture
o certain acts or phenomena that may seem personal, psychological such as suicide can be traced
back to certain societal arrangements
o modernity; people feel alienated, lost and frustrated, the police serve as potentially an integrating
function – central aspect of policing is a broader more fermeral end on social unification and social
norm sharing – police is a desired moralizing force, lets people know thy are part of a community,
have the same morality and kinds of behaviour
o police plays a role by demonstrating people what they cant do – what the community tolerates and
does not tolerate; this leaves people feeling as part of a community – police is one of many
institutions to help people feel they are still connected to others – police work is a generation of
values, - police might not always be desired; this is a question of origins; whose morals are the
police defining and moderating [land owners, feudal lords] – things that seem to represent
everybody seem to represent people of upper class/in power
o policing as the safe-guarding of morals -> are the police the best people to moderate this
Combining Weber and Durkheim
• coercion and morality
o police maintain order against the will of citizens; but they do so according to laws held by the
community, operating legally – in doing so it seems coercive and moral
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Origin and evolution of the police function in society – complex intersection of both Durkheimian and Weberian
views of police
• why is it that police emerge when and there they do? – evolutionary and anthropological approach
• policing is ultimately social control – all societies have always had social control- the regulation of other
people’s conduct
• study of social formations – once societies shift from domination by informal modes of kinships to class
dominated [income, wealth] then police emerge at some point, this emerged from securing gains of elites
• comparing genealogies
o different emergencies of the same phenomena across different countries overtime
o the development of the police is intertwined with the development of states – specifically economy
• police as democratic institutions
o the development of police has been framed as something benign and slow and natural part of social
development
o the traditional view of the history of the police – the police mirror and reflect the general order of
society
o police emerged when members of ruling class felt they needed protection from non-owners
o view of police as representing public – is actually to protect a small segment of society
• the development of the police function
o police emerge when kinship loses capacity to socially control members of society – when complex
forms advances in production and technology, families are insufficient for regulating conduct of
one another
o development of police in class dominance an state development state - as main dominance changes
and the way the state developments is influenced by that style of policing
o societal growth sparks legal growth – elite individuals make the call of police moderating
communities
o series of modifications
▪ productive and distributional relations - owners feel they need policing of their property
▪ political and community structure
▪ social relation and ideology – codes, laws, boundaries and where do police fit in
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Document Summary
Two theories on the police both needed to understand contemporary problems of the police: use of force (coercion, force comes from weber"s theory of the world, morality/social values implicit use of durkheim view of social views. Combining weber and durkheim: coercion and morality, police maintain order against the will of citizens; but they do so according to laws held by the community, operating legally in doing so it seems coercive and moral. *why its important to contextualize the broader function of police* Bordua and reiss [historical and internal structure of police in the structure of authority] Main question: is there such a thing as a synthesis model of all theories and analysis. 1748 and was about the control of immigrants, vagrants and ideal poor; similar instances of small scale policing of runaway slaves traces how this spread to the control of many other minority groups over.
