Society as Insulation Chapter Review/Reaction

Society as Insulation Chapter Review/Reaction

Society as insulation relative to control theory is the subject of the sixth chapter of the Lilly text that is the current focus of the class underway for this student. The chapter runs the gamut between five major topic dimensions, including the precursors to control theory, early control theories, Reckless's containment theories (including talk of social psychology of the self, pushes and pulls, and inner/outer containment) and then there is talk of neutralization and drift theory and the social contexts of some of the decades in the mid-1900's.

Society as Insulation

As noted in the abstract, there are five major sections to the chapter being reviewed in this document. The first section pertains to the forerunners of control theory, which include Durkheim's Anomie Theory and the influence of the Chicago School. Early control theories are covered, which for this book include Reiss' theory of personal and social controls as well as Nye's family-focused theory of social controls. A significant section on Reckless's containment theory is next with a review of the social psychology of the self, pushes and pulls, factors of outer containment, factors of inner containment, and a closing summary. Stykes and Matza's neutralization and drift theory is covered and then the chapter closes out with the control theory context of the 1950's and 1960's (Lilly, Cullen & Ball, 2011).

Analysis & Reflection

The subject of anomie, as introduced and explained by the esteemed Emile Durkheim, is something that surely many people bring up today, as it refers to breakdowns of social order and norms. Many view the progression of ideology relative to morality and other social evolutions since the 1950's to be a natural order of progress while others point to it as a degradation of social morality. How two different groups can view this societal change through two entirely different prisms is fascinating (Lilly, Cullen & Ball, 2011).

The talk of the social contexts of the 1950's and 1960's certainly drives that point home, whether or not that was the intent of the Lilly text. The whole idea of social order and norms has been coming up recently with the Occupy Wall Street protests and the vociferous protests of some union groups. The whole idea of society's role and function as a matter of control is being turned on its head yet again (Lilly, Cullen & Ball, 2011).

This entire thought pattern dovetails nicely with the Reckless talk of pushes and pulls. Many people that are protesting against private industry and/or society as a whole are no doubt influenced by internal pushes and external pulls. This is not to automatically label all such influencing as deviancy, but there are some that would absolutely do that and no doubt the two parties in many days do the labeling against each other for the same situation (Lilly, Cullen & Ball, 2011).

Even so, the focus of Reckless on juvenile delinquency and other related behavior is a lot less shades of gray and much more black and white. Crime is crime, even if the motives and indicators of it are stemming from something that is more ambiguous and hard to label than the crime itself. For example, stealing a loaf of bread is generally a crime but if the motive of the crime is to not starve or, in a more relevant current context, the company selling the break is making record profits, this mitigates if not entirely absolves the person stealing the bread in the eyes of many (Lilly, Cullen & Ball, 2011).