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Introduction to Sociology

Sociology is a social science that studies society and the individual in perspective of
Society. The origins of Sociology lie in the 19th century but the during the 1960-70s, it
became a major social science subject, taught in universities and colleges, and schools.
The scope of sociology has only become more scientific with time.

Sociology Definition
"Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. It is a dazzling and
compelling enterprise, having as its subject matter our own behavior as social beings. The
scope of sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters
between individuals in the street up to the investigation of world-wide social processes".
Anthony Giddens ("Sociology", 1989).

Social issues
Social issues are matters which directly or indirectly affect a person, many or all
members of a society and are considered to be problems, controversies related to moral
values, or both.

Social issues include poverty, violence, pollution, injustice, suppression of human rights,
discrimination, and crime. As well as abortion, gay marriage, gun control, and religion.

Social issues are related to the fabric of the community, including conflicts among the
interests of community members, and lie beyond the control of any one individual.

Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority (via
mechanisms such as legal systems) can ultimately prescribe a conviction. Individual
human societies may each define crime and crimes differently. While every crime
violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches
of contract and of other civil law may rank as "offences" or as "infractions". Crimes are
generally considered offenses against the public or the state, distinguished from torts
which are offenses against private parties that can give rise to a civil cause of action.

When informal relationships and sanctions prove insufficient to establish and maintain a
desired social order, a government or a sovereign state may impose more formalized or
stricter systems of social control. With institutional and legal machinery at their disposal,
agents of the State can compel populations to conform to codes, and can opt to punish or
to attempt to reform those who do not conform.
Authorities employ various mechanisms to regulate (encouraging or discouraging) certain
behaviors in general. Governing or administering agencies may for example codify rules
into laws, police citizens and visitors to ensure that they comply with those laws, and
implement other policies and practices designed to prevent crime. In addition, authorities
provide remedies and sanctions, and collectively these constitute a criminal justice
system. Legal sanctions vary widely in their severity, they may include (for example)
incarceration of temporary character aimed at reforming the convict. Some jurisdictions
have penal codes written to inflict permanent harsh punishments: legal mutilation, capital
punishment or life without parole.

The label of "crime" and the accompanying social stigma normally confine their scope to
those activities seen as injurious to the general population or to the State, including some
that cause serious loss or damage to individuals. Those who apply the labels of "crime" or
"criminal" intend to assert the hegemony of a dominant population, or to reflect a
consensus of condemnation for the identified behavior and to justify any punishments
prescribed by the State (in the event that standard processing tries and convicts an
accused person of a crime).

Often a natural person perpetrates a crime, but legal persons may also commit crimes.

Types

Researchers and commentators may classify crime into categories, including:

• property crime
• public order crime
• violent crime

Property crime
Property crime is a category of crime that includes, among other crimes, burglary,
larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime only
involves the taking of money or property, and does not involve force or threat of force
against a victim. Although robbery involves taking property, it is classified as a violent
crime, as force or threat of force on an individual that is present is involved in contrast to
burglary which is typically of an unoccupied dwelling or other unoccupied building.
Property crimes are high-volume crimes, with cash, electronics (e.g. televisions), power
tools, cameras, and jewellery often targeted. "Hot products" tend to be items that are
concealable, removable, available, valuable, and enjoyable, with an ease of "disposal"
being the most important characteristics.

Public order crime


In criminology public order crime is defined by Siegel (2004) as "...crime which
involves acts that interfere with the operations of society and the ability of people to
function efficiently", i.e. it is behaviour that has been labelled criminal because it is
contrary to shared norms, social values, and customs. Robertson (1989:123) maintains
that a crime is nothing more than "...an act that contravenes a law." Generally speaking,
deviancy is criminalized when it is too disruptive and has proved uncontrollable through
informal sanctions.

Public order crime should be distinguished from political crime. In the former, although
the identity of the "victim" may be indirect and sometimes diffuse, it is cumulatively the
community that suffers, whereas in a political crime, the state perceives itself to be the
victim and criminalizes the behaviour it considers threatening. Thus, public order crime
includes consensual crime, victimless vice, and victimless crime. It asserts the need to use
the law to maintain order both in the legal and moral sense. Public order crime is now the
preferred term by proponents as against the use of the word "victimless" based on the
idea that there are secondary victims (family, friends, acquaintances, and society at large)
that can be identified.

For example, in cases where a criminal act subverts or undermines the commercial
effectiveness of normative business practices, the negative consequences extend beyond
those at whom the specific immediate harm was intended. Similarly, in environmental
law, there are offences that do not have a direct, immediate and tangible victim, so crimes
go largely unreported and unprosecuted because of the problem of lack of victim
awareness. In short, there are no clear, unequivocal definitions of 'consensus', 'harm',
'injury', 'offender', and 'victim'. Such judgments are always informed by contestable,
epistemological, moral, and political assumptions.

Violent crime
A violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens
to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is
the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end,
such as robbery. Violent crimes include crimes committed with and without weapons.
With the exception of rape (which accounts for 6% of all reported violent crimes), males
are the primary victims of all forms of violent crime.
POPULATION
Pakistan Table of Contents
In early 1994, the population of Pakistan was estimated to be 126
million, making it the ninth most populous country in the world. Its
land area, however, ranks thirty-second among nations. Thus
Pakistan has about 2 percent of the world's population living on less
than 0.7 percent of the world's land. The population growth rate is
among the world's highest, officially estimated at 3.1 percent per
year, but privately thought to be closer to 3.3 percent per year by
many planners involved in population programs. Pakistan's
population is expected to reach 150 million by 2000 and to account
for 4 percent of the world's population growth between 1994 and
2004. Pakistan's population is expected to double between 1994 and
2022.

These figures are estimates, however, because ethnic unrest led the
government to postpone its decennial census in 1991. The
government felt that tensions among Punjabis, Sindhis, muhajirs
(immigrants or descendants of immigrants from India), Pakhtuns,
and religious minorities were such that taking the census might
provoke violent reactions from groups who felt they had been
undercounted. The 1991 census had still not been carried out as of
early 1994. The 1981 census enumerated 84.2 million persons.

Population Distribution and Density

Pakistan's people are not evenly distributed throughout the country.


There is an average of 146 persons per square kilometer, but the
density varies dramatically, ranging from scarcely populated arid
areas, especially in Balochistan, to some of the highest urban
densities in the world in Karachi and Lahore.

About 68 percent of the population lived in rural areas in 1994, a


decrease of 7 percent since 1970. In contrast, the number of people
living in urban areas has risen substantially, resulting in an urban
growth rate of 4.6 percent between 1980 and 1991.

More than half of Pakistan's population is below the age of fifteen;


nearly a third is below the age of nine. For cultural reasons,
enumerating the precise number of females has been difficult--and
estimates of the percentage of females in the population range from
47.5 percent in the 1981 census to 48.3 percent in the 1987-88
Labour Force Survey. Pakistan is one of the few countries in the
world with an inverse sex ratio: official sources claim there are 111
men for every 100 women. The discrepancy is particularly obvious
among people over fifty: men account for 7.1 percent of the
country's total population and women for less than 5 percent. This
figure reflects the secondary status of females in Pakistani society,
especially their lack of access to quality medical care.

Population Planning Policies and Problems

Pakistan's extremely high rate of population growth is caused by a


falling death rate combined with a continuing high birth rate. In
1950 the mortality rate was twenty-seven per 1,000 population; by
1990 the rate had dropped to twelve (estimated) per 1,000. Yet
throughout this period, the birth rate was forty-four per 1,000
population. On average, in 1990 each family had 6.2 children, and
only 11 percent of couples were regularly practicing contraception.

In 1952 the Family Planning Association of Pakistan, an NGO,


initiated efforts to contain population growth. Three years later, the
government began to fund the association and noted the need to
reduce population growth in its First Five-Year Plan (1955-60). The
government soon combined its population planning efforts in
hospitals and clinics into a single program. Thus population
planning was a dual effort led by the Family Planning Association
and the public sector.

In the mid-1960s, the Ministry of Health initiated a program in


which intrauterine devices (IUDs) were promoted. Payments were
offered to hospitals and clinics as incentives, and midwives were
trained to treat patients. The government was able to attract funding
from many international donors, but the program lost support
because the targets were overly ambitious and because doctors and
clinics allegedly over reported their services to claim incentive
payments.

The population planning program was suspended and substantively


reorganized after the fall of Mohammad Ayub Khan's government
in 1969. In late December 1971, the population was estimated at
65.2 million. In an attempt to control the population problem, the
government introduced several new programs. First, the Continuous
Motivation System Programmed, which employed young urban
women to visit rural areas, was initiated. In 1975 the Inundation
Programmed was added. Based on the premise that greater
availability would increase use, shopkeepers throughout the country
stocked birth control pills and condoms. Both programs failed,
however. The unmarried urban women had little understanding of
the lives of the rural women they were to motivate, and shopkeepers
kept the contraceptives out of sight because it was considered
manner less to display them in an obvious way.

Following Zia ul-Haq's coup d'état in 1977, government population


planning efforts were almost halted. In 1980 the Population
Division, formerly under the direction of a minister of state, was
renamed the Population Welfare Division and transferred to the
Ministry of Planning and Economic Development. This agency was
charged with the delivery of both family planning services and
maternal and child health care. This reorganized structure
corresponded with the new population planning strategy, which was
based on a multifaceted community-based "cafeteria" approach, in
cooperation with Family Welfare Centres (essentially clinics) and
Reproductive Health Centres (mostly engaged in sterilizations).
Community participation had finally become a cornerstone of the
government's policy, and it was hoped that contraceptive use would
rise dramatically. The population by 1980 had exceeded 84 million.

In preparing the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1983-88), the government


projected a national population of 147 million in the year 2000 if the
growth rate were to be a constant at 2.8 percent per year, and of 134
million if the rate were to decline to the desired 2.1 percent per year
by then. By the Seventh Five-Year Plan (1988-93) period, the
multipronged approach initiated in the 1980s had increased
international donor assistance and had begun to enlist local NGOs.
Efforts to improve maternal and child health were coupled with
education campaigns. Because of local mores concerning modesty,
the government avoided explicit reference to contraceptive devices
and instead focused its public education efforts on encouraging
couples to limit their family size to two children.

The key to controlling population growth, according to activists in


the women's movement, lies in raising the socioeconomic status of
women. Until a woman's status is determined by something other
than her reproductive capabilities, and especially by the number of
sons she bears, severe impediments to lowering population growth
rates will persist.

Migration and Growth of Major Cities

Pakistan's cities are expanding much faster than the overall


population. At independence in 1947, many refugees from India
settled in urban areas. In the 1950s, more than one-half of the
residents of several cities in Sindh and Punjab were muhajir. Some
refugee colonies were eventually recognized as cities in their own
right.
Between 1951 and 1981, the urban population quadrupled. The
annual urban growth rate during the 1950s and 1960s was more than
5 percent. This figure dropped slightly in the 1970s to 4.4 percent.
Between 1980 and early 1994, it averaged about 4.6 percent. By
early 1994, about 32 percent of all Pakistanis lived in urban areas,
with 13 percent of the total population living in three cities of over 1
million inhabitants each--Lahore, Faisalabad, and Karachi.

The key reason for migration to urban areas has been the limited
opportunity for economic advancement and mobility in rural areas.
The economic and political control that local landlords exercise in
much of the countryside has led to this situation.

The urban migrant is almost invariably a male. He retains his ties


with his village, and his rights there are acknowledged long after his
departure. At first, the migration is frequently seen as a temporary
expedient, a way to purchase land or pay off a debt. Typically, the
migrant sends part of his earnings to the family he left behind and
returns to the village to work at peak agricultural seasons. Even
married migrants usually leave their families in the village when
they first migrate. The decision to bring wife and children to the city
is thus a milestone in the migration process.

As cities have grown, they have engulfed surrounding villages,


bringing agriculturists into the urban population. Many of these
farmers commute to urban jobs from their original homes. The focus
of these individuals' lives remains their family and fellow villagers.
Similarly, migrants from rural areas who have moved to the cities
stay in close touch with relatives and friends who have also moved,
so their loyalties reflect earlier patterns. The Pakistani city tends to
recreate the close ties of the rural community.

Pakistani cities are diverse in nature. The urban topology reflects the
varied political history within the region. Some cities dating from
the medieval era, such as Lahore and Multan, served as capitals of
kingdoms or small principalities, or they were fortified border towns
prior to colonial rule. Other precolonial cities, such as Peshawar,
were trading centers located at strategic points along the caravan
route. Some cities in Sindh and Punjab centered on cottage
industries, and their trade rivaled the premier European cities of the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Under colonial rule, many of the older administrative cities


declined. Where the British located a trading post (factory) near an
existing administrative center, the city was typically divided into old
and new, or European, sections. New towns and cities also emerged,
especially in the expanding canal colonies; Faisalabad (formerly
Lyallpur) is such a city. The town of Karachi expanded rapidly to
become a center of rail and sea transport as a consequence of British
rule and as consequence of the opening of massive irrigation
projects and the increase in agricultural exports. Thus, Pakistan's
two largest cities, Karachi and Lahore, illustrate how differing
regional and sociocultural histories have shaped the variations
among Pakistan's cities.

Karachi absorbed tens of thousands of muhajirs following


independence in 1947, grew nearly two and one-half times from
1941 to 1951, and nearly doubled again in the following decade.
Karachi is by far Pakistan's largest city and is still rapidly growing.
In the early 1990s the population exceeded 10 million.

Karachi's rapid growth has been directly related to the overall


economic growth in the country. The partition of British India into
the independent states of Pakistan and India prompted an influx into
Pakistan of Muslim merchants from various parts of the new,
Hindu-majority India. These merchants, whom sociologist Hamza
Alavi refers to as salariat, had money to invest and received
unusual encouragement from the government, which wanted to
promote the growth of the new state.
Karachi at first developed in isolation. Relatively few people from
outlying areas were engaged in running its factories, and the city
had little impact on Pakistan's cultural fabric. But when the
economies of southern Sindh and parts of Punjab began to expand,
large numbers of migrants flooded the city in search of work
(generally low-paying jobs), and Karachi become the hub of the
nation's commerce. The city, however, also has serious problems. It
has the poorest slums in the country, and it suffers from serious
interethnic conflict as a consequence of the influx of many
competing groups. It was the site of considerable violence in the late
1980s as muhajir solidified their local power base vis-à-vis the
Pakhtuns and native Sindhis.

Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, contrasts markedly with


Karachi. With just under half the population of Karachi, it is
regarded as the cultural nucleus of Punjab. Residents of Lahore take
special pride in their city's physical beauty, especially in its Mughal
architecture, which includes the Badshahi Mosque, Shalimar
Gardens, Lahore Fort, and Jahangir's tomb. In the earliest extant
historical reference to the city, in A.D. 630 the Chinese traveler
Xian Zang described it as a large Brahmanical city. A center of
learning by the twelfth century, Lahore reached its peak in the
sixteenth century, when it became the quintessential Mughal city--
the "grand resort of people of all nations and a center of extensive
commerce."

The economy and the population expanded greatly in the 1980s in a


number of other cities. The most important of these are Faisalabad,
Gujranwala, Wazirabad, and Sialkot in Punjab; Hyderabad in Sindh;
and Peshawar and Mardan in the North-West Frontier Province.

The nation's capital was situated in Karachi at independence.


General Mohammad Ayub Khan, who assumed power in 1958,
aspired, however, to build a new capital that would be better
protected from possible attack by India and would reflect the
greatness of the new country. In 1959 Ayub Khan decided to move
the capital to the shadow of the Margalla Hills near Pakistan's third
largest city, Rawalpindi. The move was completed in 1963, and the
new capital was named Islamabad (abode of Islam). The population
of Islamabad continues to increase rapidly, and the official 1991
estimate of just over 200,000 has probably been much exceeded.

Impact of Migration to the Persian Gulf Countries

Pakistan had a severe balance of payments deficit in the 1970s. To


deal with this deficit, as well as to strengthen ties with the Islamic
states in the Middle East, the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
encouraged both skilled and unskilled men to work in the Persian
Gulf countries. The government set up a program under the Ministry
of Labour, Manpower, and Overseas Pakistanis to regulate this
migration and also seconded military troops to many of the Gulf
states.

By the mid-1980s, when this temporary migration was at its height,


there were estimated to be more than 2 million Pakistanis in the
Persian Gulf states remitting more than US$3 billion every year. At
the peak, the remittances accounted for almost half of the country's
foreign-exchange earnings. By 1990 new employment opportunities
were decreasing, and the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War forced many
workers to return quickly to Pakistan. Workers have only slowly
returned to the Gulf since the war ended.

The majority of the emigrants are working-class men, who travel


alone, leaving their wives and children behind with their extended
families in Pakistan. These men are willing to sacrifice years with
their families for what they see as their only chance to escape
poverty in a society with limited upward mobility. A study in the
old quarter (the inner walled city) of Lahore in 1987 suggested that
half of all working-class families had at least one close relative
working in the Gulf. Families generally use the remittances for
consumer goods, rather than investing in industry. The wage earner
typically returns after five to ten years to live at home.

Although this migration has had little effect on Pakistan


demographically, it has affected its social fabric. While a man is
away from his family, his wife often assumes responsibility for
many day-to-day business transactions that are considered the
province of men in this traditional male-dominated society. Thus for
the women involved, there is a significant change in social role.
Among the men, psychologists have identified a syndrome referred
to as "Dubai chalo" ("let's go to Dubai"). This syndrome, which
manifests itself as disorientation, appears to result from social
isolation, culture shock, harsh working conditions, and the sudden
acquisition of relative wealth. Men often feel isolated and guilty for
leaving their families, and the resultant socio psychological stress
can be considerable.

Repercussions of the War in Afghanistan

The presence of large numbers Afghan refugees has had a weighty


impact on the demographics of Pakistan. After the Soviet Union
invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, refugees began streaming
over the borders into Pakistan. By 1990 approximately 3.2 million
refugees had settled there, a decrease of about 90,000 from 1989.
Previously uninhabited areas of the North-West Frontier Province
and Balochistan had been settled by refugees during the 1980s. The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
estimated that in 1990 there were 345 Afghan refugee villages. Of
these, 68.5 percent were in the North-West Frontier Province, 26.0
percent in Balochistan, and 5.5 percent in Punjab. Each village
housed an average of 10,000 people, and women and children
accounted for 75 percent of the refugee population.

The influx of refugees has had profound social consequences, and


the population of desert areas has also had an effect on the
environment. Initially, Pakistanis wanted to help their neighbors in a
time of need, but difficulties slowly led many to think that their
friendship had gone far enough. Among the problems was inflation,
a dearth of low-paying jobs because these were taken by refugees,
and a proliferation of weapons, especially in urban areas. The
escalation of animosity between refugees and Pakistanis,
particularly in Punjab, caused the government to restrict the
refugees' free movement in the country in the mid1980s.

To assist Pakistan in preventing conflict by keeping the refugees


separate from the local population, the UNHCR placed restrictions
on disbursements of food and other goods in its refugee camps in
the North-West Frontier Province and in Balochistan. Since the
1989 end of the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, the UNHCR, the
Pakistan government, and an array of NGOs have encouraged the
refugees to return home, but until internecine fighting in
Afghanistan stops, many will elect to remain in Pakistan. In early
1994, the number of Afghan refugees still residing in Pakistan was
estimated at 1.4 million, according to Amnesty International. More
than 2 million Afghan refugees also remained in Iran.

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