crime and social policy

crime and social policy

1. what is a social policy

   • laws/acts/programmes that shape, act, guide or change behaviour, issued by the Gov

2. the welfare debate

   • should we have welfare provision
     • no
       • Thatcher: cost
         • make the poor work
         • welfare was intated post war and was temporary- now people use it in the wrong way
         • the state should not intervene
     • yes
       • left wing
   • the purpose of welfare is to prevent absolute poverty, or relative poverty- acts as a safety net
   • dominated by two perspectives
     • social democratic
     • new right/market liberal

3. the social democratic

   • dominated political opinion for 30 years after 1945- after the war
   • it is based on the economic theory of Keynes and the beveridge report
   • beveridge
     • believed it was the duty of the individual ti combine as a society with the strong supporting the weak
     • this liberal consensus involved as acceptance of the mixed economy of the welfare state
     • he was asked to formulate a report by the gov
     • he identified 5 giant evils
       • want
         • poverty
           • benefits
       • squalor
         • homelessness
           • council housing
       • disease
         • disease
           • NHS
       • ignorance
         • lack of education
           • Butler act
             • tripartite
       • idleness
         • unemployment
           • unemployment benefits
   • keynes
     • the gov should and could intervene with the economy
     • the gov could manage the demand for goods and unemployment levels by taxation and spending policies
   • opposing a free market
     • based on accumulation not social purpose, a free market economy leads o avoidable ills and misery for some
     • market forces and undemocratic as they are controlle by a few powerful individuals
     • a free market gives unjust rewards. rewards and penalties are not governed by moral principle
     • the market is not self regulating. unless it is regulated it would end in economic crisis, unemployment, inflation and over production
     • poverty and inequality increase in a free market economy
   • the welfare state
     • response to the drawbacks of a free market
     • necessary for govs to intervene in the free market
     • redistributing income is essential to restrain the greedy and powerful
     • the outcome is greater social injustice
     • social conflict is avoidable because society becomes more integrated and all can support a fair system

4. criticisms of the social democratic

   • right wing
     • supports the undeserving poor
       • dependency culture
     • doesnt encourage work
     • competition is needed to drive standards
     • wont have the money to implement policy
       • too much cost
     • redistribution of wealth acts as a disincentive
     • the market system ensures that prices and wages find the correct level so that there is full employment and a match between supply and demand
     • govs should not intervene in the market through taxation, welfare measures and articifial restraints on business activity

5. the 80s and 90s conservative govs

   • policies
     • results
       • reduced the expenditure and size of the state sector
       • reduced taxation
       • left the labour markets to regulate themselves
       • weakened unions and restrictive practices
       • promoted the market via privatisation
       • incresed individual and familu self help to remove dependency on the state
     • 1988 education reform act
     • parentocracy
     • marketisation
     • national curriculum
     • osted
     • league tables
     • GCSEs
     • funding fomula
   • however
     • in the UK and the USA expenditure has grwon despite gov efforts to improve it
     • the growth has not been sufficient to meet the needs of the changing population structure, and increased social needs and deprivations

6. the relationship between sociology and social policy

   • sociologists who work for the gov departments or local gov authorities are often involved in policy- shaping or evaluating
     • researchers at the home office have been involved in assessing the successfullness of ASBOS and the electronic tagging of offenders
   • sociologists have more of an indirect role
     • they create a climate of opinion for the Gov to act on
     • evidence of cultural deprivation in britain and america in the 1960s and 70s led to a wave of compensatory educaion policies, such as operation head start and educational priority areas
       • however comp ed was cut by the conservatives

7. marxism

   • westerguaard
     • against making polcy recommendations on welfare
     • is sociologists like townsend encourage more benefits this will reduce class solidarity
     • this is beause they believe welfare buys of the working class and prevents them from realisiong their true class interests
     • the socil problems faced by the W/C can be overcome through a proletariat revolution whose aim would be to create a communist society

8. feminism

   • feminists have had an impact on policy
     • liberal and radical
       • child benefit paid to the mother