We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Censorship, social control and socialization.
- Authors
Segal, Alan
- Abstract
Of all those things subject to censorship in contemporary Western societies, it is the portrayal of sex and violence which receives the greatest attention and creates the greatest controversy. In this article, the author attempts to explain these phenomena in a way which differs sharply from the usual arguments about censorship and the matters to which it is applied. These arguments are not particularly helpful and, in fact, divert attention from the more fundamental concern underlying the censorship debate. Their irrelevance, furthermore, is accentuated by considerations of the ambiguity and inconsistency in the meaning and administration of the law. The censorship debate presents with a number of puzzles and lines of argument which lead nowhere, because they are seemingly irresoluble. There are people, on one hand who feel that censorship of the portrayal of sex and violence helps to prevent the spread of immorality and the imitation of violence, to which the young are particularly open to influence. On the other hand, there are those who feel that censorship of this kind represents an unjustified interference with the validity and integrity of art and reportage.
- Subjects
CENSORSHIP; ANTICENSORSHIP activists; WESTERN civilization; SOCIAL control; SOCIAL norms; SOCIALIZATION; VIOLENCE
- Publication
British Journal of Sociology, 1970, Vol 21, Issue 1, p63
- ISSN
0007-1315
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/588272