SOC109 Lecture 9
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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
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What if powerful people reject the laws' values.
- Legal backlash
- Legitimacy
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Mass incarceration is a way of enforcing the social hierarchy.
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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
- Federalist
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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.
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15th amendment
- Voting rights to everyone
- However there was another loophole
- Cut down registered voters from 130k to 1.3k
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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.