The sociology of law can be described as an interdisciplinary approach or sub-field of legal studies concerned with the study of legal issues, practices and people. Sometime referred to as the descriptive law, this approach attempts to illuminate the aspects of the legal subject by means of a sociological perspective. As opposed to a legal philosophy with an exclusively legal approach, sociology of law can be seen as a descriptive approach, drawing upon the aspects of the legal domain as a means of understanding the practice of the law. It also draws on aspects of the social sciences as well as of history and other disciplines. Some view sociology of law as being a separate discipline from sociology of law, but many others believe that it is closely connected to all disciplines of the law.

In order for sociology to be called a subfield of legal scholarship, it must fall within the purview of criminology, philosophy of law, social science, psychology and other social science disciplines. However, one must also keep in mind that there is overlap among these various disciplines. For example, while some scholars within philosophy of law argue that legal systems tend to suppress societal aspects of the individual and/or the group, others are of the opinion that the absence of such societal aspects in legal systems is the result of their being unable to find a way to capture these aspects. This view is strongly influenced by developments in the early modern period when legal systems struggled with the problem of legitimacy. Legal scholarship in this era was based on theories of rectification and modernization.

Although this overlap exists, sociological approaches within legal scholarship are still distinctive in many ways. For example, although scholars of sociology have been primarily interested in identifying the effects of legal actions on society at large-as opposed to analyzing only specific institutional settings-sociology of law is sometimes called “social science.” The discipline of sociology cannot therefore be said to offer distinct perspectives on law.

Sociology of Law can be said to offer two major alternatives to those looking for comprehensive approaches to criminal justice and punishment. These alternatives consist of cultural studies and symbolic interactionism. Cultural studies focuses on how crime and law relate to aspects of culture and social life; whereas symbolic interactionism looks at crime and law as an empirical reality driven by socialization processes.

The focus of this paper will focus on the last type of perspective. Symbolic interactionism is based on the idea that crime is a product of social control. Specifically, this perspective postulates that war arises when people are unable to control or regulate their own behaviors and feelings against certain norms and values that society deems as legitimate. According to this school of sociological thought, the mass public has lost its ability to control the criminal through legal means.

This sociological theory has been used in many fields. It was also brought into popular culture through movies such as The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola) and Zoolander (Steve Martin). As a fictional example, George Steinbrenner, the owner of the Steinbrenner Furniture store, is also obsessed with the idea that his employees are not loyal to him. Hebanishes them to a remote island for what he calls “spilling” on his good company. The plot of the film is not unlike that of any other sociological theory. Only the outcome is different: instead of furniture being left strewn across the store floor, employees (and some foreign tourists as well) find themselves transformed into immortal, tree-huggers called Zoolanders.

A more plausible alternative to the above theory is that the recent increase in gang violence across the United States has resulted in a reaction to a dysfunctional response in the American social system. If this is the case, then we should look at a new definition of the word “sociology of law.” In my opinion, it should be replaced by the word “cognition.” By cognition, I mean the ability to understand societal situations and trends, and a law degree would fall under this definition.

Halliday’s research has illuminated an important problem in modern society. Specifically, she has revealed how race and ethnicity may have impacted the severity of sentencing in our courts, which in turn may have had an impact on society as a whole. In this way, Halliday highlights the interdependence of race and ethnicity, which she sees as an important feature of contemporary life. Although this may seem like a simple observation, it is a point that is explored fully in great detail in a book like Race and Justice: The Origins of Policing in America, which traces the development of policing and its relation to ideology, race, and ethnicity throughout the history of the republic. By looking into the sociology of law, we can learn about the larger societal problems that are exacerbated by the criminal justice system and how specific areas of contemporary life are affected by it.