The Role of Civil Sanctions in Social Control: a Socio-legal Examination

This chapter examines the concept of social control in discussions of crime and deviance. Discussions of informal social control identified the ways in which the management of deviance emerged and was embedded in social relations: it was unplanned, unconscious, automatic, private and often diffuse. This was then contrasted with formal social control, most closely associated with the criminal justice system which was planned, specific, public, and oriented to specific individuals for their punishment or rehabilitation. Many theorists (for example, Durkheim and Black) argue that formal social control will gradually take over more of the responsibility of crime control in contemporary society. Durkheim also points to the shift from repressive to restitutive law. Current interest in crime prevention again focuses on social relations as sources of crime management in addition to punishing offenders. Using civil sanctions (including insurance) to encourage, influence, require and even coerce people to modify what are perceived to be opportunities for crime commission is an example. Crime management is more indirect, more private and more diffuse, thus having similarities with earlier descriptions of informal social control. This chapter examines new developments in crime control, including the establishment of alternative tribunals that are less formal than criminal courts and that provide opportunities for community participation, mediation and negotiation; situational crime prevention initiatives; and the greater role of insurance. Crime Prevention Studies, volume 9 (1998), pp. 21-43 22 — Sharyn L. Roach Anleu