SOC109 Lecture 9

• SOC 109 F24 - Law & Hierarchy.pdf

• Social Regulation

• Social order has more than one meaning

  • Doesn't just regulate conduct, it regulates relationships.
  • Not us vs them, us vs the state. The law regulates a lot of relationships
  • It can reinforce and create hierarchies.
  • Ranks

• What if powerful people reject the laws' values.

  • Legal backlash
  • Legitimacy

• SOC109 Readings 9

• Mass incarceration is a way of enforcing the social hierarchy.

• Law is layered

  • Federalist
    • Local levels
    • National levels
    • Federal levels
  • Flexibility to deal with local problems.
  • If there's a conflict, the federal level wins.
  • Judicial review

• 13th amendment

  • Eradicates enslavement. Except for as a punishment.
  • Made to integrate the previous slaves into society now.
  • People who don't want to follow will find loopholes.
    • Legal backlash
    • Create contracts to create opportunities for enslavement.

• 15th amendment

  • Voting rights to everyone
  • However there was another loophole
  • Cut down registered voters from 130k to 1.3k

• The war on drugs started as soon as laws and these amendments got tighter and more strict.

  • Differences in drug use and who uses them also have different sentences.