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HSP 3M - Unit 3
Social Institutions
Ms. Pannell
Bain, C.M., & Colyer, J.S. (2001). The Human way. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Unit 3 Social Institutions
So far in the course we have been focused on:
Forces that influence and
shape human
behaviour (age,
gender, mental illness,
ethnicity…)
How we are socialized
(agents of socialization
(family, school, peers,
media, workplace,
religion)
In a nutshell, the forces within our self (nature), and in others (nurture)
Social structures
Unit 3 Task -
To look at how these
forces fit into society
Social Institutions
What are social Institutions?
Social Institutions are social structures in a society that:



shape values and beliefs
maintain order
help society to function efficiently
Family
Marriage
Peers
Personal Institutions
Affect individual’s lives
intimately
School
Churches
Legal system
Military
Media
Government
Impersonal Institutions
Because they affect large
groups of people
Characteristics of Social Institutions


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Have usually existed for a long time
Have well established or entrenched patterns of functioning (change usually
occurs slowly)
Have a specific purpose
Members are joined together by shared values and beliefs
family
Purposes of Social
Institutions
 Act as an agent of socialization
 maintain order and security
Legal
system
Government
peers
Society
church
work
military
media
Unit 3 Question:

Are Canada's social institutions successful
according to the above definition?

Discuss using examples:
Criminal Justice Systems
All societies need to have mechanisms for
social control
CJS
to ensure that individuals
behave in acceptable ways
to determine what happens
when individuals break the
rules
Canada's Formal Justice System
3 Components
Apprehend / arrest criminals
1. Law Enforcement
Police
To protect
To prevent crime
2. The Courts
Adversarial – lawyers
representing the
defendant compete
with crown
prosecutors
To process people charged
by the police with a crime
Canada's Formal Justice System
3 Components (continued)
a) Punishment of the
Offender, once
convicted by the courts
3. Correctional
Agencies
and Institutions
b) Rehabilitation (the
Offender chooses not
to re-offend due to their
new acceptance of
society’s norms
c) To protect the
public by jailing violent
offenders
1. Retribution: “An eye
for an eye”
(society’s desire)
2. Deterrence
(individual)
(society)
Rehabilitation of the offender


most Canadians think it's necessary
changing the offender's values so they will not re-offend
Criticism: The facts!

but most also think that prisoners “have it easy” and don't
support government spending on programs

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less than half of the general prison population receives
counselling or treatment
less than one third of sex offenders receive any kind of
treatment
Canada's recidivism rate (the rate at which offenders re-offend)
is currently 75%
Informal Justice Systems in Other
Societies

In Canada, the justice
system is highly
impersonal

In other cultures
personal relationships
and maintaining social
harmony are much
more important in the
justice system
Informal Justice Systems continued

Aboriginal
communities
emphasize



healing offenders
righting the
conditions that led
to the offence
integrating the
offender back into
the community
The community is of primary importance. Within the
community, each person had his or her roles and
responsibilities, each of equal value to one another.
Kpelle culture of Africa (central Liberia
and Guinea)
Gibbs’ study of the legal system in 1957 and 1958

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Patrilineal culture (inherit through the male line)
population 175 000
two branches – formal and informal

Formal court handles assault, possession of illegal charms
and theft involving unrelated litigants

Informal court or moot is an informal airing of disputes before
an assembled group (Includes the complainant, the accused,
neighbours, other family members and a mediator selected by
the complainant)
Factors which make the moot successful

Proceedings, although
“spirited”, were orderly and
open, anyone could speak
and felt like they had been
heard

All felt like they had an
impact on the resolution

the faults of both parties
were pointed out therefore
allowing those at fault to
save face, not labelled
Example: Read page106 of textbook
Issues in Canadian Criminal Justice
1. The Power of the Police

Approximately 1 police officer for every 475 Canadians

Studies of police behaviour tell us 6 factors influence police
behaviour
1)
how serious the police perceive the situation to be - more
serious = more likely to arrest
what the police believe the victim wants
the amount of co-operation the suspect offers- unco-operative
suspects tend to get arrested
police's history with the suspect- prior negative contact more
likely to arrest
presence of bystanders- more likely to arrest
Race - more likely to arrest people of colour
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Police Behaviour and Race

While this study was conducted in the U.S. we know
that in Ontario

black people are imprisoned at 5 times the rate for white
people
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Aboriginal people are jailed at 3 times the rate for white
people
News Reports
 http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/racial_profiling/
Racial Profiling
Racial Profiling exists when
the members of a particular
racial or ethnic group
become subject to greater
criminal justice or
institutional surveillance
than others. Profiling exists
when racial characteristics
- rather than behaviour –
contributes to surveillance
decisions
Percentage of Toronto residents who
Have been stopped by police on
Multiple occasions in the past 2 years
35
30
25
20
Female
Male
15
10
5
0
Chinese
Black
Source: Scot Wortley, CERIS – Justice Domain Leader, Centre of Criminology,
University of Toronto
Issues in Canadian Criminal Justice
2. The Number of Prisons

Between 1987 and 1997, the total
correctional population increased by 44%
(Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics 1997)

In 2001, there were 34 000 inmates in
Canada (Linden 2000)
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115: 100 000 population
much higher than in Western Europe, but lower
than the U.S.
Prisons continued

Average cost of keeping an offender
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in a federal penitentiary is $50 000 to $65 000 a
year
halfway house - $33 000
parole - $9000 (Solicitor General Canada 2001)
In 1995-97
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77% of the total caseload was outside of prisons
only 12% of all correctional spending was for
community supervision services
Issues in Canadian Criminal Justice
3. Rehabilitation or Radical Reform

Some sociologists argue that we should abandon
our current criminal justice system, particularly
prisons

Why:
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only protect the public temporarily
do little to reshape offenders attitudes or behaviours
strengthens criminal attitudes and skills by association
severs social ties with the outside world which makes it
more likely that individuals will re-offend
Rehabilitation continued
Hirschi's analysis of criminal behaviour

crime rates are high in late
teens and early twenties
and fall steeply among older
groups

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most taxpayers' money is
going towards warehousing
a diminishing crime threat
we must intervene in the
lives of young people
before they break the law

e.g. restrict the
unsupervised activities of
teenagers
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Likelihood
to commit
a crime
18- 25- 35- 4519 29 39 49
Age of offenders admitted to Federal Custody,
Canada. 1995-97
Rehabilitation continued

strong link between criminal behaviour and low
self-control

teaching children self-control at an early age will reduce
crime
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advocates strong families
target funds and assistance to seriously dysfunctional
families
reducing teen pregnancy alone would reduce crime more
effectively than all the current criminal justice programs
combined