psychiatry and social control

Social Control

is the enforcement of conformity by society upon its members
either by law or by social pressure.

All of the formal and informal mechanisms and internal and external controls that operate to produce conformity, it is the opposite of deviance.

Talscott Parsons developed earliest perspective - how societies produce enough conformity to reproduce themselves across generations and how people willingly confirm through socialization

Types of social control theory

1. conformity producing (focus on how people learn to conform by internalizing social norms and taking on social roles.)

2. 2. Deviance Repressing (deviance behaviours and measures used to reduce it ex - punishment)

two methods of social control 1. formal (visible, police, jails) 2. informal (less visible)

informal social control

Pressure that is put on people to abide by social normal and accepted behaviours in society.

The reactions of individuals and groups that encourage us to conform to norms and laws.

Our values and the values of society are frequently products of informal social control. Informal sanctions can include, shame, ridicule, sarcasm, but in extreme cases it can include social discrimination and exclusion.

Informal controls reward or punish acceptable or unacceptable behaviour. These differ from individual to individual, group to group, and society to society

Origins of formal control

Michel Foucault - Discipline as a form of power
where we are involved in our own punishment.

Shift from punishing the body to punishing the soul. The state began to assert social control by shaping our minds, so we’re educated to conform even when not being directly surveilled or punished.

medicalization of Deviance

non medical aspects of life come to be seen as medical terms. blame the individual body.

We tend to think of medicine, science, and therapy as a neutral force. when we medicalize the problem, we de-politicize it.

Formalization of social control

State-determined social control through the creation of laws and their enforcement (police, law,).

Formal methods are means of dealing with deviance through law, using sanctions such as fines an imprisonment.

social controls are deliberately created and imposed, they maintain the rule of law in democratic societies the laws and mechanisms of formal social control usually come through legislation by an elected representatives.

Sanctions

are mechanisms of external social control. can either be positive (rewards) or negative (punishment) and can arise from either formal or informal control.

Positive sanctions are wards given to make people conform and behave.

Negative sanctions are punishments that society enforces to make people conform and behave.

Therapeutic Social Control - Coercion and Conciliation

alter the behaviors of those with a mental disorder through therapeutic needs. 2 types -

1. Coercion - occurs when a decision made by one individual or group is forcibly imposed on another (ex involuntary commitment).

2. Conciliation - a negotiation or compromise between two parties to achieve consensus, through negotiation (patient convinces reluctant client to experiment with a new medication).

Women - define their own problem, and discussed their problem with others and accepted when offered a definition. Men - rarely place themselves into treatment or discuss problems,

Medical social control

as the way in which medicine wittingly or unwittingly attempts to secure adherence to social norms (which are defined by society) through the use of medical means to minimise, eliminate, or normalise deviant behaviour.

Defining what is health and related advice to remain healthy becomes a type of medical social control.

Both psychiatry and public health are modes of social control and include psychotherapy.

Psychoactive medication under the influence of pharmaceutical companies is a form of medical social control

Psychiatrists as agents of social control

one medical specialty where psychiatrists have a legal responsibility to assess and manage risk on behalf of the society and community.

This includes the ability to provide social control and take patients’ liberty away and forcefully treat them against their will within a legal framework that has been approved by society. psychiatry has often been responsible for an increased medicalization of normal human emotions.

Mental health law and social control

Definitions of dangerousness, false commitment, insanity, as a defence and the right to treatment are bound up in society’s interest in maintaining social order.

At the same time, they provide mentally disturbed patients with legal rights that will protect them from being unduly punished and having no say in their future.

Mental health law accordingly is an expression of a society’s determination to remove mentally disturbed deviants from its midst and to place them in controlled settings where they can receive treatment for their condition, and hope to be returned to normal functioning.

Dangerousness’ provides a legal vehicle for removing people from the community. The law thereby becomes a way for them to obtain psychiatric treatment instead of punishment.

Winnipegs ARCC program

ARCC is a collaborative partnership between the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) and Shared Health’s Crisis Response Centre (CRC) that responds to non-violent, non-emergent, and low risk crisis situations.

NCRMD

people who commit criminal acts under the influence of mental illnesses should not be held criminally responsible for their acts or omissions in the same way that sane responsible people are.

No person should be convicted of a crime if he or she was legally insane at the time of the offence … Criminally responsibility is appropriate only where the actor is a discerning moral agent, capable of making choices between right and wrong.

Have to be assessed by two psychiatries, and decided by jury or judge, or council/ review board to be re entered into community

Unfit to stand Trial

unable on account of mental disorder to conduct a defence at any stage of the proceedings before a verdict is rendered or to instruct counsel to do so.

unable on account of mental disorder to - understand the nature or object of proceedings, understand the possible consequences of the proceedings or communicate with counsel. Judge determines fitness.

Winnipeg mental health court (MHC)

, available only in Winnipeg at the present time. The MHC offers pre-sentence intensive services and supports to persons whose criminal involvement is a direct result of their mental illness.

Persons who have been diagnosed with a severe and persistent mental disorder, such as schizophrenia or bipolar mood disorder, and committed certain criminal offences may be eligible for MHC.

brain injury, autism, Alzheimer is not considered for this route. Other routes - drug treatment court and FASD Court (fetal alcoholism, hard to get)

Ford - Americas largest mental hospital article

estimates that between 25 and 40 percent of all mentally ill Americans will be jailed or incarcerated at some point in their lives, many of which were 'crimes of survival'.

In Canada, Mental illness rates are about 4 to 7 times more common in prison than in the community.