Active learning ideas
This topic explores how society maintains order through formal and informal social control. Students compare formal agencies, such as the police, the courts, and the prison system, with informal agencies like the family, peer groups, and the media. They investigate how these different forces work together to discourage deviance and encourage conformity.
Activity 01
Students take on roles as lawyers, judges, and victims to argue whether a specific offender should be sent to prison for 'retribution' or 'rehabilitation.' This highlights the conflicting goals of formal control.
What are the agencies of formal social control?
Activity 02
Create posters for different agencies (Family, Police, Media, Religion). Students walk around and add examples of 'sanctions' each agency uses (e.g., grounded by parents, arrested by police, 'cancelled' on social media).
How do peer groups exert informal social control?
Activity 03
Students think of a time they felt pressured to conform to a group norm. They share with a partner and identify the 'informal sanctions' (like teasing or exclusion) that were used to keep them in line.
Is the criminal justice system biased?
A few notes on teaching this unit
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Social control is only about the police.
Informal social control (like family and peers) is often much more powerful in our daily lives. A 'day in the life' log where students track every time they felt pressured to behave a certain way can reveal the hidden power of informal control.
Prisons are only for punishment.
The UK justice system has multiple goals, including rehabilitation, deterrence, and protecting the public. A debate on the 'reoffending rate' helps students see that punishment alone doesn't always work as social control.
Methods used in this brief
Social Construction of Crime
Students learn to distinguish between crime and deviance, understanding that these concepts are socially constructed and vary across time and cultures.
8 methodologies
Sociological Explanations of Criminal Behaviour
An analysis of various sociological theories explaining why people commit crimes, including strain theory, subcultural theories, and labelling theory.
8 methodologies
Patterns of Crime and Victimisation
Students will analyse official crime statistics, self-report studies, and victim surveys to identify patterns related to class, gender, and ethnicity.
8 methodologies