Topics on Sociology of Law - Midterm Examination | SOC 3553, Exams of Political Sociology

Download Topics on Sociology of Law - Midterm Examination | SOC 3553 and more Exams Political Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Sociology of Law Study Guide- Text Chapter 1 Intro De Soto- 80% of poor people in developing world can’t identify who owns what Traditional societies Modern Industrial Homogenous Heterogenous Moral or devine authority More complex No formal law Face-to-face relations limited Direct/intimate realtions Conflict and dispute common Informal mechanisms work Formal, universal laws **Law reflects intellectual, social, economic, political climate of its time Sociology and law are both concerned with issues of legitimate authority E. Adamson Ross- “law is most specialized and highly furnished engine of control employed by society” Lester Ward- government control and social planning Sociological jurisprudence- study of law and legal philosophy and use of its ideas in law to regulate conduct  “law in action” Roscoe Pound- law should be studied as social institution (social control) Sociology in Law grew because:  After WWII, Vietnam war- social conflict, stratifications  Public funds put into research for evaluating law-based programs designed to address social problems in US Adam Podgorecki- Polish sociologist, # of national styles of social science work related to law Germans goal in sociology of law- reunification Russians goal in sociology of law- turn more Western Eugene Ehrlich- center of gravity of legal development in society itself *There is bad communication between sociologists and lawyers  Schur- lawyers want quick decision, sociologists deliberate and consider implications  Vilhelm Aubert- legal thinking is different from scientific thinking: 1. Law is more particular, not general 2. Law does not draw connections with means and ends 3. Law is either valid or invalid 4. Law does not deal with considering past with the present 5. The consequences in law are valid even if they do not occur 6. There is little room for compromise in law Definitions of Law Hoebel- “to seek definition of the legal is like the quest for the holy grail” Julius Stone- law is abstract term, carefully chosen Cordoz and Holmes- courts backed by authoritative force Max Weber- law has 3 basic features: 1. Pressures to abide by the law must come externally 2. These actions or threats always involve coercion or force 3. Those who instrument threats are those whose duty is to enforce the law  Problems with these features according to Selznick:  Not all laws are followed due to force, sometimes it is by duty or obligation  Not all societies have organized administrative apparatus Donald Black- Law is governmental control 4 kinds of social control in law: 1. Penal- deviant viewed as violator of prohibition and offender subject to punishment 2. Compensatory - person considerable to have obligation, owes restitution often in form of funds 3. Therapeutic- deviants conduct is abnormal, needs treatment 4. Conciliatory- deviant behavior represents one side of confliction in need of resolution without considering who is right or wrong Rules of law are a guide for action In terms of sociology, law is behaviors, situations, conditions for making, interpreting, and applying legal rules backed by state’s legitimate coercive apparatus for enforcement Types of Law Categories of content of law: Substantive- rights, duties, prohibitions administered by courts Procedural- how substantive laws are to be administered, enforced, changed, used by players in legal system Public law- structure of governmental duties and power of officials, relationship between individuals and state Private law- deals with substantive and procedural rules governing relationships between individuals Civil law- body of rules and procedures intended to govern the conduct of individuals in their relationships with others  Torts- violations of civil laws, private wrongs where individual may seek restitution Criminal law- definition of crime and prosecution and penal treatment of offenders, regarded as offenses against state or public  Crime- public wrong Civil law- codified systems with statutes Common law- based on case law, precedents set by judges Further branches in the U.S.: Constitutional law- public law, political organization of state and its powers, procedural limits on governing power Case law- enacted by judges in cases in appellate courts Statutory law- law made by legislators Executive orders- issued by executive branch at federal and state levels Administrative law- body of law, created by administrative agencies in form of regulations, orders, decisions Major Legal Systems Chapter 9 Researching Law in Society 4 methods of data collection in Sociology:  Historical - often used in other three, understanding of processes of social change and factors that shaped present critical investigation of events, developments, experiences of the past, contents from documents and materials used as data collection (secondary analysis) o Ex. Chamberliss vagrancy laws changing from accepting low wages to doing what is best for the community o Baumgartner- social status of defendant and litigant affects outcomes of court cases o Friedman and Percieval- trial courts come to do less work in settling disputes, more in administrative nature o Brenner- reliance on stare decisis increases over time o Theory is chosen and method is applied o Life histories- based on narrations of personal experiences  often in ethnographic reports (memory cases)  tainted by selective recall o Limitations:  Limited accuracy and thoroughness of documents and materials involved  Need to check for internal and external consistency o *BEST to combine with other data collection methods  Observational Methods o Divided into 2 types:  Human and mechanical observers  In lab or field  Long history with anthropological research  Knowledge of primitive law comes from those who lived in traditional societies  Methodological eclectism- choosing method that suits purpose (Margaret Mead)  Lab: Mock trials- deliberations of processes under various conditions  Field: direct contact with subjects o “action research”- knowledge with action o Advantage- opportunity to record information as events unfold, high validity, good with groups hard to communicate with o Limitations- not applicable to large social settings  Researcher perception/selective memory cause bias  No way to access reliability or validity of interpretations  Researchers say depth of data helps with this  Experimental Methods o Testing causal relations in the lab or field o Two or more equivalent groups o Two common ways to set up experimental or control groups  Matched-pair technique- for each person in experimental group, another similar person in important variables places in control group  Random assignment- statistically random assignments of persons to experimental and control groups are made  Ex. Wisconsin welfare experiment- gov. sponsored policy experiment  NJ guaranteed income experiment to solve serious questions about impact of welfare on incentives for poor people to work  Hawthorne effect prevalent o Many jury or violence experiments done in lab settings o National Convention on Causes and Prevention of Violence relied on results of lab experiment  Survey Methods o Systematic and comprehensive collection of information about attitudes, beliefs, behavior of people o Most common- face-to-face interview, telephone, questionnaires o Representative sample of population (probabilistic sampling essential to survey studies) o Dominant method of data collection in Sociology o Limitations  Response rate (60% or better is a good rate) o U.S. Department of Justice on extent of crime in the U.S. o Victimization surveys- people more willing to discuss crimes against them, seek information instead of waiting for report, more representative than other sources of crime data  Disadvantages  Expensive locating them, length of questions, information lacking in suburban and rural areas o Surveys widely used in cross-cultural studies dealing with knowledge and opinion about law  Impact of Sociology on Social Policy o Pure science- search for knowledge without concern for practical use o Applied science- ways using knowledge to solve practical problems o Social policy- purposive legal measures adopted and pursued by representatives of government who are responsible for dealing with particular social consitutions in society o Policymaking- process of identifying alternative courses of action that may be followed and choosing among them  Scott and Shore- impact of Sociology on social policy can be seen by looking at Sociologys contributions to policy recommendations and contributions to enacted policy  Contributions to Policy Recommendations o Best known are uses in Presidential Commisions  Presidents Commission on law Enforcement and Administration of Justice- social science formed recommendations  Ex. Possibility of decriminalizing certain offenses, reconsideration of consensual crimes  National Commission on Causes and Prevention of Violence  Nature of violence social as opposed to biological or psychological  Presidents Commision on Obesity and Porn  Personal, psychological, social consequences of exposure, repeal laws prohibiting it to consenting adults  President Commission on Population Growth and U.S.F. Future  Population indirect and ineffectual policy level for environmental problems o Scott and Shore on involvement of sociologists in commissions  Concepts provide new perspectives more than common sense  Advance scientific understanding of society  Methods of research to answer specific questions of commissions (most common)  Sociology on Enacted Policy o Findings cited in social science research underrepresent influence of research because policymakers want to cite legal knowledge  Ex. 1954 supreme court outlawing segregation in public schools  Reduction of delay in courts, testimony changes  Coleman Report- 1964 survey of schools used by Department of Education authorized by Civil Rights Act to show lack of equal opportunity for race, color, religion, origin  Moynihan- role of social science not in formation of social policy but in measurement of results  Evaluation Research and Impact Studies o Evaluation- specific policies, objective evaluation of programs for societal impact o Carol Weiss- criteria of difference between evaluation and other methods  Evaluation is generally conducted for client who intends to use research as basis for decision making  Whether program accomplishes what it is supposed to  Are program goals being reached?  Situation where priority goes to program instead of evaluation  Always possibility of conflicts between researcher and program staff because of divergences of loyalties and objectives  Results useful for policy decisions emphasis o Thomas Dye- impact of policy has many dimensions o Friedman and McCauley- difficult to determine purpose of law or program  Law can have intended and unintended consequences or both o Difficulties  Of measurement of impact happen where behavior is hard to quantify and tell what behavior would have been without intervention of the law  Knowledge of law plays a role in study of impact  Spillover effect- policies may have positive or negative effects on groups or situations other than those that are directed