NCJ Number
75880
Journal
Criminology Volume: 18 Issue: 4 Dated: (February 1981) Pages: 531-547
Date Published
1981
Length
17 pages
Annotation
The ability of four forms of crime control to provide for the stability and adaptability of social control is analyzed.
Abstract
Four types of crime control tactics exist. The neglect and coping strategy makes no plans or allowance for social control through failure to (1) define acts as deviant, (2) measure the incidence of acts, of (3) enforce proscription. Crimes may be considered inevitable, and a typical social response has been learning to adapt through coping mechanisms. Incarcerating offenders in maximum security institutions for incapacitation purposes also typifies this strategy. The proscriptive strategy, attempting to preclude activities which fall outside the realm of social acceptability usually fails to allow for changes in group norms. The integration strategy attempts to adapt both the deviant and the social system to reach mutual acceptability; diversion programs fall within this category. However, this strategy depends on some measure of social acceptance of deviance. Finally, the reconstruction strategy emphasizes the modification of community values and social control mechanisms. This approach allows deviancy to proliferate in the short run, and tends to enhance community complexity. Crime controls which emphasize the elimination of undesirable behavior are destabilizing and this approach has characterized recent crime control attempts. Crime control systems should, instead, focus on social adaptation. The most viable crime control strategy is that of integration techniques requiring adaptation by deviants combined with the reconstruction strategy emphasizing social change. Nine references are included.