Social Control and Emancipation ? Ambiguities in Child Welfare

Child welfare may be regarded either as a tool used by the authorities to exercise social control over family life, or as a weapon supporting the cause of children, striving to emancipate them from both parental and societal neglect or oppression. Research into Norwegian child welfare in the period since the Second World War reveals an ambiguous picture: the intervention of the state into family life signals both tightening social control of all family members and emancipation of the less powerful from patriarchal rule. As the rights and needs of children are considered more important, the control of parents, especially the mother, is increased. The central position of children and their interests have been strengthened in child welfare legislation. However, it is not the child, but the child welfare officials who define what is 'in the best interest of the child'. Post-war development has not granted children autonomy. Child welfare legislation is still mainly paternalistic. In child welfare casework, there is a danger that the lived experience of the child never emerges from the shadows cast by the interaction between adults. In relation to older children who came in contact with child welfare primarily because of their own problem behaviour, the ambiguity of emancipation and control has taken a somewhat different shape. The authorities wanted to keep these children out of prison. Humanitarian considerations, however, have been coupled with hopes of more effective crime prevention. In the postwar years, misbehaving children were also embraced by the increasing importance of 'the best interest of the child' as the main objective in child welfare decisions. In order to secure both emancipation and control, 'the best interest of the child' and the state's interest in preventing crime had to be understood as one and the same.     

Informal Social Controls,Procedural Justice and Perceived Police Legitimacy: Do Social Bonds Influence Evaluations of Police Legitimacy?

Although procedural justice has been a key predictor of police legitimacy, recent findings illustrate that other factors influence this outcome (i.e., low self-control and ethnic identity). However, no research to date has evaluated whether individual-level informal social controls impact police legitimacy evaluations. Survey data are used to examine the influence of parental attachment, school commitment and procedural justice on perceived police legitimacy. While procedural justice significantly predicted legitimacy evaluations, no significant relationships were observed between parental attachment, school commitment and police legitimacy. The effects of procedural justice on legitimacy assessments, however, were modestly significantly moderated by parental attachment and school commitment. To maintain legitimacy, police officers should interact with citizens in procedurally fair manners. These results should also be of value concerning how parents and schools legally socialize adolescents.     

University Students’ Views of Formal and Informal Control in Japan: An Exploratory Study

Both formal and informal crime controls are used to deter individuals from engaging in criminal behavior in many societies, including Japan. This study used survey data from a convenience sample of 267 Japanese college students to examine the importance of formal and informal crime control. In general, there were higher levels of support for informal methods of crime control than formal methods. Respondents felt that fear of being rejected by family, neighbors, and peers was a stronger deterrent to crime than fear of being punished by the law. The respondents ranked family the most important mechanism in crime prevention, followed by peers, police, schools, neighborhoods, correction facilities, and courts. There was also a fair amount of support for blended formal and informal crime control methods. Mobility (i.e., the number of times the respondent had moved in his/her life) and age were positively associated with the belief that formal crime control deterred crime. The population size of the town where the respondent grew up was negatively associated with support for formal crime control. Students who grew up in larger urban areas tended to rate formal control higher than those who grew up in a small town or the countryside.     

On the Limits of Social Control: Structural Deterrence and the Policing of “Suppressible” Crimes

The present study examined the relationships between patterns of police arrests and subsequent variations in robbery, burglary, and aggravated assault in New York City police precincts from 1989 to 1998. Grounded in the structural deterrence theoretical perspective, and using a two‐stage fixed‐effects statistical framework, the study found that while controlling for indicators of social disorganization, increases in arrest vigor (i.e., arrests per officer for violent crimes in each precinct and raw arrest counts) predicted decreases in robbery and burglary, but that the relationships were non‐linear: as arrest vigor increased, robbery and burglary crime decreased; when arrest thresholds were reached, however, both robbery and burglary crime rates became positively associated with arrest aggressiveness. Conversely, variations in aggressive arrest patterns had no significant effect on aggravated assault, supporting the suppressible crimes arguments that primarily economically motivated crimes, and those that tend to occur in public settings, are most likely deterred by aggressive police practices.     

Do Social Services Matter for Child Maltreatment Prevention?: Interactions between Social Support and Parent's Knowledge of Available Local Social Services

Despite wide recognition that increased social support is associated with positive parenting behaviors, there is limited understanding regarding the mechanisms through which the neighborhood context can increase or hinder social connections. In a sample of 1,050 parents in Franklin County, OH, this study examines the role of availability of social services in child maltreatment. Through negative binomial regression, the study finds that greater availability of social services is associated with lower levels of child abuse and neglect. Additionally, the availability of social services moderates the relationship between social support and child maltreatment, such that the relationship between social support and child maltreatment is weaker for parents in neighborhoods with greater availability of services. The findings suggest that increasing services and awareness of such services might be an opportunity for child maltreatment prevention.     

National Consensus or Social Anomaly?

The dynamics of mass consciousness in Russia, formed in the wake of the 2014 events in Ukraine and Crimea, testify to the consolidation and radicalization of the popular majority. The national consensus has shaped a high level of public optimism even in the face of deteriorating socioeconomic conditions. However, this process brings to the fore archetypal traits that in many ways run contrary to the modern desire for mass consumption, which in many ways is also contrary to social mobilization. This contradiction will affect the political process, if not in the short- then in the long term, and will significantly affect the sociopolitical situation, making it less stable than in the first decade of the present century.     

Racial Residential Segregation and Social Control: A Panel Study of the Variation in Police Strength Across U.S Cities, 1980–2010

Despite a great deal of theoretical and empirical attention given to racial residential segregation and its influence on a number of social problems in the United States, few scholars have examined the role that this persistent form of racial inequality plays in shaping the magnitude of formal social control efforts. Our study examines this relationship by assessing the potential influence that the isolation of minorities may have on efforts to control crime in urban centers across the United States. Using a pooled time-series regression technique well suited for the analysis of aggregate, longitudinal data, we assess the potential influence of racial segregation on the size of municipal police departments in 170 U.S. cities between 1980 and 2010. After accounting for minority group size, economic threat, crime, and disorganization, we find that racial residential segregation has a significant non-linear effect on police force size. Cities with the most racially integrated populations have the smallest police presence but at very high levels of segregation, police strength levels off. This finding is consistent with expectations derived from the contact hypothesis. Under such conditions, majority group members appear to be less inclined to demand greater crime control measures such as increased police protection. Period interactions with residential segregation also suggest that this relationship has grown stronger in each decade since 1980. Overall, our study provides strong support for threat theories and the contact hypothesis but offers necessary refinements.     

Beyond State Consent? International Legal Scholarship and the Challenge of Informal International Law-Making

Netherlands International Law Review - The article explores scholarly attempts to come to terms with the phenomenon of informal international law-making in its multiple manifestations. It is shown...     

The NHS Information Revolution: ‘Choice of Control’ to ‘Choice’ and ‘Control’

This paper provides a novel and critical analysis of the necessary and important balance between ‘individual privacy’ and ‘collective transparency’. We suggest that the onset of the Information Revolution has created a dilemma for the National Health Service (NHS) in terms of how it addresses its obligation to use information to improve best practice in healthcare for society (‘collective transparency’) whilst also keeping sensitive personal information confidential (‘individual privacy’). There is clearly a need to consider both whether the NHS is balancing this critically important informational relationship and whether its approach is fit for purpose. We argue that the NHS's ‘proxy-individual’ information guardian role could inadvertently mask individuals' intended roles, effectively circumventing autonomy-based laws by limiting the power of individuals to be autonomous. In this article we have identified three issues – first the prevailing ‘Mindset’ (the ‘M’) of ‘privacy’, which is viewed as individualistic, resulting in an overpowering concept of confidentiality; second, the quality and control of Information (the first ‘I’); and third, the concept of innovation (the second ‘i’), which is being used as a ‘solution’ rather than a vehicle for transparency. Indeed, transparency is our target of ‘best practice,’ and we suggest that individual privacy and collective transparency are best embedded within a complementary privacy framework that offers a better fit than the current split of control between the roles of the NHS and the roles of the individual. It is suggested that when facilitated by transparency, ‘control’ and ‘privacy’ form a continuum, aligning through the desire for choice. Therefore, the choice of control could facilitate control and choice. Together, they could replace the concept of privacy by empowering ‘informed patients’ to support the NHS's ‘No decision about me, without me’ pledge.     

The “Tough on Crime” Competition: a Network Approach to Understanding the Social Mechanisms Leading to Federal Crime Control Legislation in the United States from 1973–2014

The increase in punitive sentiment in America over the last four decades is frequently attributed to changes in criminal justice policies and programs. While scholars have studied the impact of legislation and policy on justice system outcomes, less attention has focused on the role of political actors in legislative bodies who are largely responsible for enacting criminal justice legislation. The current study addresses this gap by examining the social organization of federal crime control policy in the U.S. Congress over a forty-two year period (1973–2014). Drawing from research on social network mechanisms, we examine whether crime control legislation was more politically attractive relative to other legislative topics, and whether Democrats and Republicans pursue these policies by working together or competing against each other. Our results provide novel insight into the mechanisms that contributed to the punitive movement at the federal level.     

For Better or Worse? Gender and Perceptions of Formal and Informal Justice Systems in Afghanistan

We draw on survey data from a national probability sample of 6,406 Afghan adults (aged 18 years and older) to explore gender differences in the perceptions of formal and informal justice systems. The study utilizes binary logistic regression to probe whether men and women differ in their attitudes and the extent to which other factors may mediate both within– and across–ethnic group differences. We find that women have more confidence in the formal system than their male counterparts, whereas the opposite is true for the informal system. The scholarly and policy implications of these results are discussed.     

Social control: analytical tool or analytical quagmire?

Conclusion In this paper we have undertaken what we regard as a preliminary critique of the concept of social control and its utility for a critical criminology in Canada. In tracing its emergence and historical development as a key concept in American sociology, we have illustrated that its ascendancy represented a victory for liberal sociology. The recent attempts by critical criminologists and sociologists to rehabilitate the concept of social control by insisting upon the essentially coercive nature of control have not resulted in an advance over traditional theorizing.By examining the women, law and social control literature, in particular the use of the formal/informal dichotomy, we have attempted to illustrate the limited utility of the concept for developing an historically and theoretically informed understanding of the complex and contradictory relationship of women to the state and law. The concept of social control is ahistorical: when coupled with law, moreover, it lends itself to instrumentalism. It is our view that the concept of social control ought to be abandoned by critical scholars in favour of one attentive to the dynamic complexity of history, struggle and change.Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Sociology and Anthropology, 4–7 June 1986, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Equal authorship.     

Changing Control of the Open Drug Scenes in Oslo— Crime,Welfare, Immigration Control,or a Combination?

Over the last few years there has been a societal move away from a perception of drug users as criminals to a perception of the users as sick. Contrary to what one may expect from such a change, reported drug crimes against the penal code are at record-high levels. It is the contradictory inherent in these tendencies that will be emphasized and highlighted in this article. The open drug scenes in Oslo and the police control of the scenes have changed. During the last few years there has been a growing element of foreign citizens in the drug scenes, and the police control has focused on the foreigners. Could part of the explanation of the contradictions be that there is a differentiation of how the different users are handled? Are there different forms of social control employed toward Norwegian and foreign actors in the open drug scenes? This article puts forward arguments that this is actually the case, driven by a consistent association of foreign actors in the drug scene with organized crime, and a stricter Norwegian legislation and approach to immigration questions, with a tendency toward a conflation of immigration and criminal law.     

Social Citizenship,Housing Wealth and the Cost of Social Care: Is the Care Act 2014 ‘Fair'?

This article assesses the extent to which it is ‘fair’ for the government to require owner‐occupiers to draw on the equity accumulated in their home to fund their social care costs. The question is stimulated by the report of the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, Fairer Care Funding (the Dilnot Commission) and the subsequent Care Act 2014. The enquiry is located within the framework of social citizenship and the new social contract. It argues that the individualistic, contractarian approach, exemplified by the Dilnot Commission and reflected in the Act, raises questions when considered from the perspective of intergenerational fairness. We argue that our concerns with the Act could be addressed by inculcating an expectation of drawing on housing wealth to fund older age: a policy of asset‐based welfare.     

Violence at Work—The Emergence of a Social Problem

This article analyses trends in violence at work on the basis of victim surveys, work-environment surveys, and press material. It proceeds from the two most common explanations of why violence at work appears to have increased over recent decades. These emphasize shifts in working conditions that have increased employees' victimization risk, and a broadened view of what is regarded as work-related violence. The empirical analyses provide support for both these explanations, and the various dimensions examined—increased reporting propensities, expanded definitions, a reduced tolerance of violence, and altered working conditions—are linked to one another.     

Social background and citizen–legislator congruence in candidate-centred systems

Legislatures are arenas where diverse policy preferences are honed into practical policy proposals. Given that legislative membership is a result of free democratic elections, there is an assumption that the attitudes and opinions of MPs are representative of the population as a whole. Thus, pre-legislative bargaining is founded on an unbiased sample of public opinion. However, considerable opinion incongruence exists between citizens and the political elite in many systems, potentially undermining this ideal democratic starting point for legislative business. Candidate-centred voting systems offer the potential to remedy this disconnect. While citizens tend to emphasise personal characteristics as an explanation for vote choice in one of the most candidate-centred systems in existence, proportional representation-single transferable vote, the disconnect of opinion congruence between citizens and elites persists. This paper finds that citizens’ emphasis on MPs’ personal characteristics when choosing representatives causes significant opinion congruence between citizens and elites on a demographic basis, particularly for under-represented groups such as women, younger citizens and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, but aggregate congruence is undermined by the lack of demographic diversity among MPs.     

Social Media’s Role in Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict Recovery

Armed conflict can have detrimental and profound effects on the social capital of people and communities affected by violence. Besides the destruction of economic and physical infrastructures, intrastate conflict fractures societies, destroys social capital, and exposes vulnerable populations to mental health disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder. The restoration of social capital represents a major challenge in achieving sustainable peace in the vast majority of pluralistic societies that have suffered from past conflicts. The emphasis on the reconstruction of the physical infrastructure needed for the survival of agonized communities after a conflict can delay the restoration of social capital, which slows down the recovery process. As a result, the damaged social capital in post-conflict societies remains an obstacle in building sustainable peace. This essay highlights the influence of social media on the restoration of social and psychological capitals in post-conflict recovery.