What is an "ideology?"

WHY DISCUSS IDEOLOGY in this CLJ 540 presentation?

     We often think about things in ways in ways that are heavily 
influenced by ideology. This is especially common in criminal justice,
where policies, laws, and practices sometimes seem to defy reason. So,
sometimes it helps to examine the ideological roots that might
guide the thinking politicians, administrators, and even ourselves.
Much of today's presention will try, with luck, to return to the
role ideology plays in the correctional process.

WHAT IS "IDEOLOGY?"

    We often think of "ideology" in political terms: left/center/right;
liberal/conservative. However, ideology is far more complex and
nuanced. Even this discussion is simplistic, but it it will get us 
started.

    Ideology refers to those beliefs, attitudes, and basic assumptions 
about the world that justify, shape and organize how we perceive and 
interpret the world.  IDEOLOGY underlies norms, laws and values. Ideology 
is a set of the most-basic assumptions and rationalizations about our 
social world.  Examples include:
   --The belief in "Justice for all"
   --"Obamacare is Socialist intrusion"
   --"The death penalty is murder"
   --"Marriage is between a man and woman"
   --"Do the crime, do the time!"

So an ideology provides the basic framework for decisions and policies 
about the social world and political activity.  More specifically, 
ideologies are the non-coercive conceptual machineries for maintaining 
social order.

Ideology suggests a "false consciousness" in that it prevents us from 
seeing the world as it "really is" in that we DO NOT QUESTION that which 
we ACCEPT as "NORMAL." We are ALL influenced by ideology. The trick is to 
IDENTIFY the ideological constraints that that block our understandings 
of the world.

IDEOLOGIES are NOT necessarily wrong, but because they often keep us
from asking questions or thinking outside of the box. They LEGITIMIZE 
and promote particular conceptions of the way things OUGHT to be.

IDEOLOGIES HAVE SEVERAL FEATURES:

  1. They are PRECONSCIOUS
  2. They are emotionally charged
  3. They are shared among a large group of individuals; (ie, are
     NOT simply INDIVIDUAL attitudes, but SOCIAL constructs)
  4. They contain assumptions about the state of the world and how
     it OUGHT TO BE
  5. They are DISTORTED pictures because they are limited and
     partial (and they thus generate "FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS" because
     they are incomplete.

The point: Ideology guides and shapes and justifies our practices. To
understand criminal justice processes, it is useful to understand the 
role ideologies play in our views of what constitutes a social 
offense, who should (or should not) be the subject of control,
and how we respond to social offenses.

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