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Law and Society, Theories of dealing with consensus and conflict, Law…

- - - - To protect people from harm; Offences Against the Person Act 1861
      - Ensuring common good by providing services for all; National Health Service Act 1946
      - Resolve disputes over limited resources; Resolve disputes over limited resources
      - Persuade citizens to act positively; Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994
  - - - For example, homosexuality between consenting male adults was a crime in the UK up until 1967 , when the Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalised this for those 21 and over. In 1994, this was lowered to 18 and in 2000 to 16
        
        A response to society's recognition of the importance of equality for gay people
      - Moral panics
        
        As social norms change, media may exaggerate the threats posed by the behaviour of small sections of society, often with the result that the new behaviour becomes more popular.
        
        An example of this is the media frenzy over pit-bull terrier attacks Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
        
        The legislation was deeply flawed and difficult to implement, showing that laws passed in a hurry in response to a moral panic do not always work well
    - - Informal - it occurs through the family, a peer group, a local community or societal group
      - Formal - it occurs through specific social agencies which have the role of maintaining order in society:
      - Criminal Justice System
      - Law-makers
      - Civil Justice System
- - - - A pluralist society requires tolerance to function
      - Assimilation - Where groups within a society abandon their old practices that are no longer acceptable to to be apart of pluralist society
      - Multiculturalism is the belief that different cultures, beliefs and opinions within a society should be given equal importance
        
        This does not account for powerful informal mechanisms such as prejudice and discrimination
        
        EQUALITY ACT 2010
- - - - Law is the primary agent of social control due the decline in both the influence of the church and the family
        
        Social control may fail where the law is inconsistently enforced. If the law becomes unpopular or out of step with society's values, it may be changed (e.g the law on abortion and the introduction of the Abortion Act 1967)
    - - Social control ensures that only certain forms of behaviour are acceptable. As a result, it provides the predictability and security we need to interact in society
        
        Law polices the boundaries of what is acceptable, deals with deviant behaviour and allows civil society to work, In this way law shapes our society
        
        Public Order Act 1986 introduced following Brixton riots and the Miners' strike, both of which featured large scale social unrest and disorder
    - - Separated interests into individual interests (citizen) and public interests(society) they couldn't be balanced against each other
        
        Smoking in public interest; individual interests to ban
- - - - Family and education enforce the values with positive and negative sanctions and this in his view produces social control by producing consensus
        
        Contrast with Pound who believes that the law coerces and controls society
- - - - Source: Home Office = Stop and searches per 1,000 people 2017/18. 29 stop and searches for every black person
        
        Black people were 9 and a half times as likely to be stopped and searched as white people
        
        Some of the areas where stop and searches have more black people in them
      - Labelling people in this way creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.
        
        Labelling someone as criminal and giving them a criminal record makes it harder for them to reintegrate into society and therefore likely to commit crimes
        
        Critics of this theory think it underplays the responsibility of the individual for their own decisions
- - - - Should concentrate on what judges do rather than on precedent and statute
        
        Law is a generalised prediction of what the law will do. This can never be certain as society changes faster than law - homosexuality or assisted dying,
        
        Results in absurdity as a judge does not decide the law based on rights a person has but rather what rights he's going to let them have
        
        How judges balance interests
- - - - However, limitation according to Emile Durkhiem Consensus theory, society would generally agree with murder is a very serious and immoral offence
        
        Society's view changed when defendant himself has been the subject of a 'miscarriage of justice'
        
        R v Owen, defendant son killed by negligent driver. Driver received short custodial sentence and Owen felt there was serious injustice and attempted to kill the driver. All the elements of attempted murder was satisfied and in accordance to the law, Mr Owen should have been found guilty.
        
        Jury did not find him guilty thus not upholding or being influenced by the law.
        
        As criminal legal system relies on lay members of the public, juries and magistrates, to enforce the law it can be potential be disturbed by human emotion
- - - - Using the literal rule in LNER v Berriman it argued that judge are more likely to interpret the statute according to Parliament's wishes, upholding the law and maintaining the influence of statue law
      - However nowadays the purposive approach, used in R v Registrar General (Ex parte Smith) is the most favoured approach.
        
        This rule is more open to judge placing their own interpretation on what they think Parliament intended
        
        Thereby making it more likely for Parliament's true intentions not to be followed and thus limiting the power and influence of the supreme lawmaker
      - Holmes Legal Realism
- - - - By- laws such as parking restrictions and prohibiting dog fouling in parks, can be very effective in influencing the behaviour and attitudes of local communities and poop bag common
        
        However, effectiveness of by-laws can often be because they have simply reflected the demands of the local people rather other way roundl
        
        The power and influence of by-laws may have limitation in lack of publicity given
        
        The case involving an air passenger who was unaware he was committing an offence by taking a tennis racket on a plane
        
        If society are unaware of legislation, it is not going to impact on their conduct, thereby significantly reducing the influence
- - - - This was despite the fact that decision resulted for injustice for the individual. This was a very clear example of where the judges were operating Bentham's Theory for the greater good for the greatest number, thereby maximising the influence on society
        
        Similarly in Miller v Jackson Lord Denning said that the benefit to the community outweighed the nuisance suffered by the individual. These decisions can send out strong messages to society that individuals sacrifice something necessary for the greater good
- - - - Providing employment, paying living wages and affordable housing will all help to reduce deprivation and the need to commit crime .
        Having a more accountable and democratic criminal justice system will reduce the marginalised groups. Crime control should be a shared responsibility between several agencies, not just the police and law enforcement
- - - - Other polices include use of prison sentences for minor crimes , this is unlikely as offender would loose long term jobs houses and families and would consequent lead to further crime
- - - - In Family Court age is a less relevant matter however racial backgrounds may raise concerns, even if magistrates have diversity training.
        
        This suggestion that offenders should be tried by their peers of exactly the same sector of society is unworkable. However magistrates need to be aware of the facts of life in different communities within society