Cities and towns; Social psychology; Sociology; Sociology, Urban
2. The disposition of judges in municipal and criminal courts to
assume administrative function so that the administration of the
criminal law ceases to be a mere application of the social ritual and
becomes an application of rational and technical methods, requiring
expert knowledge or advice, in order to restore the individual to
society and repair the injury that his delinquency has caused.
3. Changes and divergencies in the mores among the different isolated
and segregated groups in the city. What are the mores, for example, of
the shopgirl? the immigrant? the politician? and the labor agitator?
It should be the aim of these investigations to distinguish not merely
the causes of these changes, the direction in which they are moving,
but also the forces that are likely to minimize and neutralize them.
For example, it is important to know whether the motives which are at
present multiplying the positive restrictions on the individual will
necessarily go as far in this country as they have already done in
Germany. Will they eventually bring about a condition approaching
socialism?
_Commercialized vice and the liquor traffic._—Social control, under the
conditions of city life, can, perhaps, be best studied in its attempts
to stamp out vice and control the liquor traffic.
The saloon and the vice establishments have come into existence as a
means of exploiting appetites and instincts fundamental to human nature.
This makes the efforts that have been made to regulate and suppress
these forms of exploitation and traffic interesting and important as
subjects of investigation.
Such an investigation should be based upon thorough study: (1) of the
human nature upon which the commerce has been erected, (2) of the social
conditions which tend to convert normal appetites into social vices, (3)
of the practical effects of the efforts to limit, control, and stamp out
the vice traffic and to do away with the use and sale of liquor.
Among the things that we should desire to know are:
To what extent is the appetite for alcoholic stimulus a prenatal
disposition?
To what extent may such an appetite be transferred from one form of
stimulation to another; that is, e.g., from whiskey to cocaine, etc.?
To what extent is it possible to substitute normal and healthful for
pathological and vicious stimulations?
What are the social and moral effects of secret drinking?
Where a taboo is established early in life, does it have the effect of
idealizing the delights of indulgence? Does it do this in some cases
and not in others? If so, what are the contributing circumstances? Do
men suddenly lose the taste for liquor and other stimulants? What are
the conditions under which this happens?
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