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Chapter 3 Culture
Laws often remain on the books for a long time after the mores of a soci- ety have changed. It is illegal in Minnesota to hang male and female under- garments on the same clothesline. New York prohibits card playing on trains; elephants in Natchez, Mississippi, cannot legally drink beer; and it is against the law to wear roller skates in public bathrooms in Portland, Oregon. (For additional laws that seem strange to us today, see Figure 3.3.)
Enforcing the Rules
People do not automatically conform to norms. Norms must be learned and accepted. Groups teach norms, in part, through the use of sanctions. Sanctions are rewards and punishments used to encourage conformity to norms. They can be formal or informal.
What are formal sanctions? Formal sanctions are sanctions that may be applied only by officially designated persons, such as judges and teachers. Formal sanctions can take the form of positive as well as negative rewards. A soldier earns a Congressional Medal of Honor as a positive sanc- tion for heroism. Teachers reward outstanding students with A’s. Of course, formal sanctions can also take the form of punishments.
Formal punishments range widely in their severity. From the Middle Ages to the Protestant Reformation, it was an unpardonable sin for lenders to charge interest on money. (This practice was called usury and was con- demned in the Bible.) This crime was punishable on the third offense by public humiliation and social and economic ruin. More recently, a few courts across the United States have handed down sentences involving public shaming. For example, some courts have required child molesters to display, in front of their homes, signs describing their crimes (El Nasser, 1996). In
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sanctions
rewards and punishments used to encourage people to follow norms
formal sanctions
sanctions imposed by persons given special authority
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A law’s final justification is in the good it does or fails to do to the society of a given place and time.
Albert Camus French philosopher
Formal sanctions often involve action in the criminal or civil judicial systems.
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