Social Control: An Introduction, 2nd Edition
November 2012, Polity
What is social control? How do social controls become part of everyday life? What role does the criminal justice system play in exerting control? Is the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness a form of social control? Do we need more social controls to prevent terrorist atrocities?
In this new edition of his popular and engaging introduction, James J. Chriss carefully guides readers through the debates about social control. The book provides a comprehensive guide to historical debates and more recent controversies, examining in detail the criminal justice system, medicine, everyday life, and national security.
Assuming no specialist knowledge on the part of readers, Chriss uses a rich range of contemporary examples to illustrate the ways in which social control is exerted and maintained. The updated edition includes new and expanded discussion of the 2011 Tucson shootings, post-9/11 counterterrorism laws in the transition from the Bush to the Obama administrations, the death of bin Laden, racial profiling, housing segregation and white flight, hate crimes, (counter)surveillance and flash mobs, the diagnosis of conditions such as ADHD, and agents of socialization in the areas of work and consumption, religion, the family, and the mass media.
This new edition of Social Control: An Introduction will be essential reading for students taking courses in deviance and social control, and will also appeal to those studying criminology, the sociology of law, and medical sociology.
PART I UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL CONTROL
1. What is Social Control?
2. A Typology of Social Control
3. Informal Control
4. Medical Control
5. Legal Control
PART II CASE STUDIES IN SOCIAL CONTROL
6. Informal Control: Housing Segregation, the Code of the Street, and the Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood
7. Medical Control: ADHD, Selective Mutism, and Violence as a Disease
8. Legal Control: Racial Profiling, Hate Crimes, and the Growth in Imprisonment
9. Terrorism and Social Control
10. Conclusion: The Future of Social Control?
- Updated throughout to make reference to the latest scholarship and theoretical developments
- Includes more material on race and urban/housing segregation, racial profiling and hate crimes
- Includes new discussion questions at the end of each chapter, and up-to-date suggestions for further reading
- New edition of a popular and engaging guide to debates about social control
- Assumes no specialist knowledge, written in a clear style eminently suitable for use as an introductory text
- Balances a comprehensive guide to key theories, with examination of recent controversies and phenomena such as terrorism laws and surveillance
- Topics include racial profiling and housing segregation, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, and how work, media and religion act as agents of social control
'Chriss reminds us that social control, the flip side of
deviance, is central to social life; all societies practice it,
from the pinnacle of the power structure to all of us at the
grassroots, in our interactions with others on a one-to-one basis.
His discussion is both broad and specific to particular key realms:
Chriss has done an admirable job of analyzing how social control
operates in the contemporary world, with terrorism, ADHD, and
racialized social relations supplying key examples.'
Erich Goode, Stony Brook University
'The author is widely read in the field of social control, and
is to be commended for his coverage of a broad range of material.
While the focus is on sociological materials, the author has
included relevant concepts and research from related fields, and
the connections among disparate literatures reflect insight and
originality. The quality of the content is excellent – I
thoroughly enjoyed reading it.'
John DeLamater, University of Wisconsin-Madison
'For a century now, scholars have tried to conceptualize control
as a central notion in sociology. The second edition of James
Chriss’s Social Control continues the grand tradition
begun by Ward and Ross, deftly weaving in classical and
contemporary thought and using current events to illustrate
medical, legal, and informal control. This is essential reading for
all social scientists, young and old.'
Matthias Gross, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, UFZ, Leipzig
'Social Control provides a theoretical diverse and timely
discussion of the way the government, medical system, and citizens
attempt to regulate behavior in modern society. Chriss draws
on wide range of scholarly work in criminology and sociology and
presents numerous examples from contemporary America to support his
James Tucker, University of New Hampshire
"A comprehensive guide to historical debates and more recent controversies, examining in detail the criminal justice system, medicine, everyday life, and national security."