Understanding Social Control

*Provides a clear, yet panoramic analysis of how the concept of social control has been used by different theoretical traditions in the social sciences. *Connects contemporary changes in areas such as policing, penal systems and surveillance, with wider and deeper changes in the constitution of society. *Employs empirical examples to illustrate key conceptual points. *Develops an innovative argument about the nature and scope of social control in late-modern societies. Understanding Social Control investigates how the concept of social control has been used to capture the ways in which individuals, communities and societies respond to a variety of forms of deviant behaviour. In so doing, the book demonstrates how an appreciation of the meanings of the concept of social control is vital to understanding the dynamics and trajectories of social order in contemporary late-modern societies. Through an analysis of a range of different modes of social control including: policing, imprisonment, surveillance, risk management, audit and architecture, this book explores how and why the mechanisms and processes of social control are changing. The book will be of interest to those studying courses in criminology and the social sciences, researchers with interests in the sociology of deviance and social control, and readers who want to understand the social forces that are shaping the world they live in.

How does social regulation shape who is “deviant” and who is “normal”? Critical Perspectives on Social Control and Social Regulation in Canada is an introduction to the sociology of what has traditionally been called deviance and conformity. This book shifts the focus from individuals labelled deviant to the political and economic processes that shape marginalization, power and exclusion. Class, gender, race and sexuality are the bases for understanding deviance, and it is within these relations of power that the labels “deviant” and “normal” are socially developed and the behaviours of those less powerful become regulated. This textbook introduces readers to theories and critiques of traditional approaches to deviance and conformity. Using vivid and timely examples of contemporary social regulation and control, this textbook brings to life how forces of social control and marginalization interact with social media, sex work, immigration, anti-colonialism, digital surveillance and social movements, and much more. Theories and critiques are clarified with summaries, definitions, rich illustrative examples, discussion questions, recommended resources and test banks for instructors.

This book investigates how the concept of social control has been used to capture the ways in which individuals, communities and societies respond to a variety of forms of deviant behaviour. In so doing, the book demonstrates how an appreciation of the meanings of the concept of social control is vital to understanding the dynamics and trajectories of social order in contemporary late-modern societies.

Deviance and Social Control: A Sociological Perspective, Second Edition serves as a guide to students delving into the fascinating world of deviance for the first time. Authors Michelle Inderbitzin, Kristin A. Bates, and Randy Gainey offer a clear overview of issues and perspectives in the field, including introductions to classic and current sociological theories as well as research on definitions and causes of deviance and reactions to deviant behavior. The unique text/reader format provides the best of both worlds, offering both substantial original chapters that clearly explain and outline the sociological perspectives on deviance, along with carefully selected articles on deviance and social control taken directly from leading academic journals and books.

"The world of sport offers a deep - and often-overlooked - source for the study of deviance and its development. Deviance and Social Control in Sport challenges preconceived understandings regarding the relationship of deviance and sport and offers a conceptual framework for future work in a variety of sociological subfields." "Drawing on their research in criminology and deviance in the discipline of sociology, Michael Atkinson and Kevin Young provide a textured understanding of sport-related deviance through the application of various approaches to deviance in a sport context. Using extended case studies, the authors examine the subject of deviance through examples that are popular, understudied, or emerging." "The text explains how forms of wanted and unwanted rule violation are produced by and mediated through social contexts in and around sport. By considering networks of social relationships and how they produce, define, and police rule violation and rule violators, Deviance and Social Control in Sport offers a nuanced and integrated explanation of sport deviance that accounts for the behaviors and practices of both individuals and teams."--BOOK JACKET.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of current and historical debates about crime prevention in particular and social control more generally. It moves beyond the traditional boundaries of criminology and offers an original re-framing of the field of crime prevention based on a synthesis of exciting new thinking in social theory.

This book explores young people’s experiences of social control and the state, especially those living at the margins of society within the UK. In particular, the book focuses on disadvantaged young people’s experiences in education, in the labour market, with police and within the criminal justice system. It draws upon insights gathered by the authors in Scotland and England via in-depth interviews with, and observation of, young people in multiple settings and the barriers they come across in terms of justice, equity and inclusion. Deuchar and Bhopal present a range of creative and engaging case studies that illustrate where barriers have been broken down between young people and the agents of social control and elucidate upon how a sense of justice and inclusion has emerged. With its wide-ranging, multi-perspective approach, this study will be essential reading for scholars and students of sociology, criminology and youth studies, as well as holding appeal for policy-makers and practitioners.

This ethnography of teenage suburban drug dealers “provides a fascinating and powerful counterpoint to the devastation of the drug war” (Alice Goffman, author of On the Run). When we think about young people dealing drugs, we tend to picture it happening in disadvantaged, crime-ridden, urban neighborhoods. But drugs are used everywhere. And teenage users in the suburbs tend to buy drugs from their peers, dealers who have their own culture and code, distinct from their urban counterparts. In Code of the Suburb, Scott Jacques and Richard Wright offer a fascinating ethnography of the culture of suburban drug dealers. Drawing on fieldwork among teens in a wealthy suburb of Atlanta, they carefully parse the complicated code that governs relationships among buyers, sellers, police, and other suburbanites. That code differs from the one followed by urban drug dealers in one crucial respect: whereas urban drug dealers see violent vengeance as crucial to status and security, the opposite is true for their suburban counterparts. As Jacques and Wright show, suburban drug dealers accord status to deliberate avoidance of conflict, which helps keep their drug markets more peaceful—and, consequently, less likely to be noticed by law enforcement.