Society and Crime

Introduction

From an early age and through the course of our lives we learn and develop our personality to which predominantly determines our role in society. During this process there are many internal and external factors and influences such as family, friends, education, , gender, class, environment race etc that determine our pathway and outcomes in life. This assignment will assess the view that primary socialization is more significant than secondary socialization in developing patterns of deviance and criminality.

The way which we learn to become members of society is through socialization, adopting the norms and values of society and by our actions and behaviour carrying our social roles. (Oxford University Press 2009).Primarily there are two distinct agents of socialization to which young people learn to integrate into society. These being Primary socialization and Secondary socialization.

Primary socialization, this stage of development occurs in the early stages of a young person’s life and is period of development of intellectual and emotional and social self. The main agent in this period is socialization within the family and immediate community. The young person’s experience at this stage can differ in contemporary society from differing types of child rearing and differing and kinds of family and community circumstances.(Huddersfield university lecture notes 2009). For a young person to thrive in society, parents /carers must teach the child from an early age what they need to know about what is normal expectations, how to behave, what are societies values and language used.. If children do not receive adequate primary socialization, they tend not to fare well as adults”. As (James. A and jenks Jeminating from Rousseau) SUGGESTS THAT CHILDREN ARE BORN FREE FROM CORRUPTION AND INNOCENT FROM ALL THAT IS WRONG. ITS IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF SOCIETY THAT THROUGH TIME WILL DAMAGES THEM. YELLOW READER.

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The way the family functions and also the environmental factors may have a great impact on the child and his development. The capacity and style of parenting received is instrumental in achieving best outcomes for the young person. (Kendra Van Wagner 2009online) suggest that “During the early 1960s, psychologist Diana Baumrind conducted a study on more than 100 preschool-age children and identified four important dimensions of parenting”:

* Disciplinary strategies

* Warmth and nurturance

* Communication styles

* Expectations of maturity and control

Alongside this (Vincent Iannelli, M.D. 2004, online) suggests physiologists have identified 3 types of child rearing.

Authoritarian

This type of parenting always wants to be in control and exercise their control on their children. They set strict authoritative rules and expectations to keep order and discipline without involving children in the process and are very critical to non conformity.

Permissive

Permissive parents are relaxed about boundaries and control of their children. They make few rules, if at all and the rules that are made are not always imposed on their children. Parents can give too many choices and accept a child’s behaviour which might be good or bad and respond in the same way.They tend give up on the child behaviour and don’t get involved with changing it.

Democratic /authorative parents

Parents guide children’s behaviour by teaching, not punishing them; they teach children to be responsible for themselves and to think about the consequences of their actions. Parents do this by giving out clear expectations and follow this through, catching the child been good and praising their behaviour rather than focusing on the bad behaviour. They establish goals that are achievable and give choices that are age appropriate.

Authoritarian parenting styles generally lead to children who are obedient and proficient, but they rank lower in happiness, social competence and self-esteem.

* Authoritive parenting styles tend to result in children who are happy, capable and successful (Maccoby, 1992).

* Permissive parenting often results in children who rank low in happiness and self-regulation. These children are more likely to experience problems with authority and tend to perform poorly in school.

From this we can conclude that the pemissive parenting styles is the one that leads to non conformity. Identifying that children need clear boundaries to keep them safe ,when following upon consequences these should be done in a learning method rather than a punishment and should be conducted in a loving caring manner.allow them in making choices and decisions that effect them are lifes which are understanble and age appropriate. When setting goals to achieve these should be achievable so should help build confidence and raise self esteem. We need to coomunicate with them control.

Other family and community factors

In large families young people may receive less one to one support from their parents corers which could reflect in behaviours not been addressed lack of emotional support

Gender

Social control witin the family

Broken homes

(Williams K.S, 2001p.38o) Points out there’s some evidence to suggest that a child with absent parents possibly through death, divorce or who have left the family home are seen to be a risk factor to criminality. (Haskell and Yablonsky 1982 cited in Williams k.s 2001p.38o) examined research of the relationship between crime and broken homes and found “between 23.9 and 61.5 per cent of delinquents came from broken homes compared to 12.9 to 36.1per cent of non delinquents came from broken homes”. As Charles Murray suggested criminality is linked to young people from single parent families who he describes as the underclass. (Williams K.S, 2001p.38o).

Relationship

A child usually in British society as a mother and father one or two siblings in other cultures the extended family may live within the house hold and help bring up their children. Within the British society in other families some children are reared in single parent homes others are looked after by step parents, divorced parents. (Giddens 2006 p.166.) Within families the focus here is on the parent /child relationship. Delinquency can arise as a result of insufficient levels of supervision by family members, little affection is shown towards them, operate minimal interaction, a small amount of family harmony, and how discipline is carried out. (Williams K.S, 2001p.382). This lack of supervision is highlighted as to be a cause of criminality by the “Youth Lifestyle Survey, (Flood and Page 2000, cited in Williams K.S, 2001p.382) conducted in 1998-9, that those boys who were poorly supervised were three times as likely to offend as those who were better supervised” other facts that effects a relationship which is highlights above is whether the family members have to work long hours due to low pay or other social circumstances which also impacts on the bonding between parents and child and lead to criminality. insome families the size of the family might mean less one to one time with individual mebers there for regulation of supervision can be minimal. A point on relationship is that even if the parent teaches all the law abiding behaviors they will only learn from them if the child regards them.

Attachment

From the birth an “infant engages in behaviours that complement and synchronized with actions of the parents” (Gormly,1997, Reissland,1998 cited in Digiulio 2001, p.40) i.e. a child will communicate its needs and the parent /carer will respond. This could be when the child wants care, comfort, and pleasure, its nappy changing, holding smiling talking etc. This interaction more often than not with the birth mother fosters affection and builds a relationship known as (Attachment). Attachment could also be formed with someone close to the child who he sees often enough to form the secure attachment.

According to Bowlby Attachment helps to keep the infant and mother relationship a close one which thus acts as a tool for survival and offers sense of security and protection. The child knows that the attached person is reliable and gives them a firmly fixed foundation for social development. (Wagner. K 2009 ONLINE)

Problems can arise from attachment which is displayed in Young people’s behaviour as (Wagner .K 2009) suggests that through Research that “failure to form secure attachments early in life can have a negative impact on behaviour in later childhood and throughout the life”.

. What people see in theer community its surroundings its peoples and activities can influence through there observations if there family parents carers don’t explain its rights and wrongs the ypoung person can copy this behavior as normal perceived behavior in socisty for instances graffit inappropriate language used fighting littering values o others also the community influence could come from the environmental its structure unemployed parents housing conditions.

What values are expressed by the family and those closely around them i.e. education employment manners,children learn from and develop aspirations,reinforce operant conditioning.a sense of identity and belonging. The passing on of appropriate love, care and affection from family and community members creates warmth from an early age, forms an attachment and or bonding. Imitative learning, Children observe (observational learning) their parents, families and or careers characteristics from an early age and start to copy their types of behavior and actions. They learn from their community environment its strengths, weaknesses and differences, its surroundings and resources, its members acts and behaviours, from this they learn to adapt their behavior respect and understand others values social settings(social learning). Families tend to treat girls with difference allowing them to take less risks and this primary socialization is an first important step in preparation for life. Within families set roles are

Secondary socialization actions learned largely from outside the family and community who are often institutional such as schools, college also leant from peer groups outside the family and media.

Within school pupils learn more about official and unofficial things i.e a formal set curriculum of subjects set out by the education authority. In school there are also hidden curriculums which are around conforming dress codes, respecting rules and unquestioning authority, time management state rules and discipline and often involves the separation of children based on abilities. Pupils can also be managed and looked upon form there class background and past family histories known to school. Institutions like school can be seen to strip away young people’s individuality by its apparent strict codes of conduct, regulations, rules and authoritarianism. (Social control) School socialization seems to indicate a preparation set out by authority to reflect conforming to state rules and improve employment prospects. Vincent Iannelli, M.D.,

Peer group we can learn from our peers and imitate their behaviours they tend to be a aid a resource to turn to a breakaway or an alternative support mechanism such as when family is dysfunctional. From peers we can gain a sense of warmth emotional bonding. Peers can be instrumental in our acts behaviours, beliefs

Causes of crime relating to family

Through our experiences of socialization if they are not positive experiences or certain needs are missing such as those highlighted in every child matters are healthy, safe, enjoy and active make a positive contribution economic well being hen problems with our self and our role in society can become problematic, acting out in a deviant or criminal behaviour.

Deviance /crime

Deviance arises from acts that are disapproved of, imposing of social judgements from members of a community, or society and political concerns on the behaviour or acts of others. These judgements can be based on norms and values and can change in differing cultures, gender, class, race, age or other social difference. (Oxford University Press 2002)

The deviant committing the act is applied with a stigmatizing label and is sanctioned accordingly i.e. sent to Coventry, looked upon as delinquent. The label applied instead of deterring (social control) the individual from other deviant acts can lead the individual to act out further their newfound delinquent identity and conduct in many cases promoting their initial act to other forms of criminal activity. (Munchie.J, 2009) Primary Deviance to Secondary deviance). Or the deviant can go on to develop there life’s which is acceptable to society. Acts of deviance can be seen to be exaggerated by the media and tends to create a moral panic where society becomes feared by young people that are portrayed as delinquent and again can amplify further deviances by many. Deviance can be as an illustration of an individual’s difficulties to manage their poverty through economic explotation. (Muncie. J 2009 p.130).

crime

(Oxford University Press 2002) Describes crime as the violation of laws, or more precisely those social norms that have become subject to state control and legal sanctions reliant on punishment. An e.g. of crime can be the Theft act which s a statute law passed by parliament and defines what a theft is this could be i.e. dishonesty by abstracting of electricity from such as fiddling a meter, using mobile phones at work. In order for act to be defined as a crime the law says it needs to have two elements. The Acteus-Reus a roundabout way of describing a defendants conduct, the act. And the Mens-Reus a blameworthy or culpable state of mind when you commiteed the act or that you were reckless you didn’t pay regard to the consequences of your action. (Huddersfield University 2009). However some acts carried out that the law states are criminal may seem quite normal to some people such as borrowing copies of DVDs or purchasing goods from other sources.

Crime and the way its dealt with can be seen to play a major part in communities and can determine the setting of social boundaries,behaviours and gain a sense of unity from its values and beliefs.(Munchie.J 2009 p.101) 2009these can change through different cultures, localities and throughout history. Definitions of Crime can also be socially constructured to reflect power and gain control over society. The power, the law, authority and courts when sentencing using guidelines can deal with crime in different ways depending on their judgements on the young persons class, age, reasoning of responsibilities of act committed, and gender.