Social Policy- These are the laws that govern the
rules of behaviour and how people are treated in society. Policies are there to
systematically organise society fairly and to make it a safe place for
socialisation a process that is needed for society to function.
In the
second week of August 2011 media coverage’s revealed that many UK cities and
major towns were subject to arson attacks, looting of shop centres and other
major disturbances of urban interest. The statistics resulting from what was
known as disturbances was truly staggering at 5 deaths, 186 police and civilian
injuries. There was also an estimate of 3500 crimes reported across London
alone. A youth referred to as Mark Duggan a local man suspected of gun crime
was shot dead by the police however the officers failed to notify Duggan’s
family of his death. This is believed to have triggered to establishment of the
riots where local members of the community marched forth to complain. However
what started as a degradation ceremony to elaborate on the dysfunctional aspect
of society lead to a true moral panic. The riots turned into something bloody,
relentless and complete animalistic violence. David Cameron even referred to
the society as actually being in a state of sickness in one of his statements.
Examples of some explanations that caused the riots in such a vicious manner
are the fact that:
·
Community
Relations- There was a failure from the Police Service to communicate with the
public about issues. This was especially the case about not reporting Mark
Duggan’s death properly triggering a lot of angry members of the community.
·
The
Copy Cat Effect- The Initiation of the riots in Tottenham took place in the
same manner in various cities across England. It seemed members of other cities
wanted to be part of the action so they imitated the behaviour of the events in
Tottenham. This took place in areas such as Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool,
Brixton and Birmingham. This was referred to as “copy cat violence.”
·
Social
Network Communication- The savageness of the events was hyped up by the social
network and communication system in our post modern societies. Through the
internet through messengers and social communication systems such as face book
managed to speed up, gather and organise the hostility. Blackberry messenger
particularly played an important role on this as well.
·
Gang
Culture- Official statistics revealed that 19% of the suspects were actually
members of local gangs or tied with them. Gangsters tend to have ties with the
public and influence due to their gang territory. If they participated in the
riots, their friends, family members and other associated who aren’t members of
the gangs to could have taken part.
·
Economic
Crisis- Due to the economic crisis with the “credit crunch” and cuts in
government spending reduced benefits for many such as getting rid of EMA. This
would leave a lot of people in a state of frustration where the situations of
the riots acted as way to scapegoat their problems onto society.
·
Political
Alienation- Another explanation of the riots was that those participating in it
felt alienated so this was their reaction against the system which they felt
had failed them. This was because they had little power or say in the way the
government system was organized.
·
Family
Breakdown- Many theorists, especially functionalists have emphasized the fact
that family breakdown was largely the cause of the riots. This created a young
“feral generation” due to being improperly socialised. There are so many lone
parent families, in 2006 26% of households consisted of families with lone
parents. These more recent statistics prove that the break down of the
functionalist nuclear family could have had a massive impact.
·
Moral
Decay- One notable explanation of the riots was by Max Hastings. He argued the
Britain was embracing a moral decay which occurred in all areas of society from
the ruling class to the underclass. Max Hasting cited the MP’s expense scandal
and excessive banker’s bonuses to illustrate who is morally economically
consuming too much from society unfairly.
To put it
blunt I would argue that these were the main factors but and you could
additionally put them into 2 categories. These are the internal and external
factors towards the individual engaging and socialising in wider society. I
divided the 2 categories into 2 sections:
INTERNAL
FACTORS
|
EXTERNAL
FACTORS
|
Gang Culture
|
Community Problems
|
Family Breakdown
|
Copy Cat Effects
|
Moral Decay
|
Social Network Communication
|
Criminality of the Mind
|
Economic Crisis
|
I would
argue that internal factors such as family breakdown create the criminal.
Children improperly socialised fail to imitate correct norms and learn moral
values causing a moral decay in this feral generation. They lack role models
and turn to gangs to fill in their empty voids as their new type of family and
see fellow charismatic and influential peers as their new role model.
Internally they are frustrated and have lost sense of morality.
Moving on, the external factors take place
after the internal factors. Due to community problems with the Police failing
to communicate with the public a trigger was set in the mind of the so called
delinquents. Once the trigger had been set, the stress of the internal factors
is released externally to wider society by these marginalized and frustrated
youths. Other youths copy the releasing of stress in many other cities as an
excuse to channel out their problems too.
In
summary, this is a typical example of the post modernist perspective to
society. It reveals how the functionalist society which was largely structured
and organized has now reached a state of complexity, unpredictability and ever
changing manner that could easily break itself down if it is disorganised even
more. For example there use to be degradation ceremonies that reminded society
moral stratification. These events would make a change so that society would
fix itself. Examples of this include the feminist movement for equality, and
the civil rights movements changing many of the laws for the stability of society.
However these degradation ceremonies no longer have an affect on members of
society today. They only remind society of its error but nothing major is being
done to resolve the issues or press for change.
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