Describe the relationship between the law and informal methods of social control, both over time and in the contemporary United States.

What will be an ideal response?


Laws represent formal modes of control, codified rules of behavior. If one accepts the consensus model of law (to be discussed shortly), laws represent an institutionalization or "crystallization" of the mores. Informally, society controls the actions of individuals through acceptance or lack thereof. . Folkways are the least serious norms and refer to usages, traditions, customs, or niceties that are preferred, but are not subject to serious sanctions: manners, etiquette, and dress styles, for example. Mores refer to more serious customs that involve moral judgments as well as sanctions (rewards or punishments). The mores cover prohibitions against behaviors that are felt to be seriously threatening to a group's way of life. Our previous examples of lying, cheating, stealing, and killing are most certainly included in the mores. Both folkways and mores are examples of informal modes of social control and are characteristic of small, homogeneous cultures that feature simple technology and wide-scale consensus.

Criminal Justice

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