About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about social order and social control, focusing in particular on: (i) how the power held by institutions like the police force and smaller formations like family units can impact crime prevalence; (ii) John Locke’s social contract theory, which states that people give away some rights and responsibility to ‘state agents’ in return for the safety of operating in a community or group; (iii) the Arab Spring as an example of when a nation state has not upheld this social contract; (iv) the Black Lives Matter movement as an example of an eruption of social unrest in the face of a state being perceived to have broken a social contract with its citizens; (v) deviation from social norms, which should be considered in the context of the time, due to them being continually in flux; (vi) some key examples of changing social norms; (vii) Hirschi’s social bond theory, which states that young people develop bonds with their families, caregivers and peers that act to inhibit criminal behaviour; (viii) the four elements of social bond theory being attachment, belief, investment and involvement.

About the lecturer

Dr Eveleigh Buck-Matthews is a lecturer in criminology in the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham City University. Dr Buck-Matthews’ research interests are in green criminology, protest and activism, and Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods. Some of Dr Buck-Matthews’ recent publications include ‘We, ourselves and us: tensions of identity, intersubjectivity and positionality stemming from the people and dancefloors project, Special Issue in International Journal of Drug Research.’ (2020) and ‘Review of Gender and Rock by Kearney, M. [2017] International Association for the Study of Popular Music Journal’ (2018).