Assignment Task
Question
Read this media report on the laws against errant PMD users:
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Get Help Now!“MPs express concern over livelihoods of food delivery riders, jail terms for underage PMD users” aIn 2017, the Active Mobility Act was passed to ensure the safe use of public paths and the use of Personal Mobility Devices (PMD). (Read more at On 5th Nov 2019, the ban on e-scooters from footpaths took effect. (Read more at This came in the wake of several reports about people being injured as a result of errant PMD users and the increasing criticisms of such users in the local media. However, there were a sizable number of PMD users who were delivery riders for whom the PMD was a tool for their livelihood. This section of the population voiced their dissent over the new law. (Read:
Using relevant concepts you learnt from weeks one and two on the social construction of crime and the social contract theory, develop a sociological explanation of how this law came into being, the responses by segments of the population for and against this law and how the state negotiated between the two.
On the enforcement of this law, examine (based on media reports) how the cases were handled and the theory of punishment that guided this response, by answering the following questions:
a. Critically analyse if the model of punishment was effective.
SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 5 of 10
SOC355 Tutor-Marked Assignment 01-03 January 2021 Semester
b. If a model of punishment based on restorative justice were to be applied instead, how could this have been implemented and how could its effectiveness be tested?
c. Examine the cited articles as well as any other media reports to assess if there were any instances of moral panic ensuing from these reports on errant PMD users and why they were or were not present. You may wish to also examine public discussion forums/threads on this topic to demonstrate any evidence of deviance amplifications and moral panics.
Student notes
- You should use course concepts and/or theories that are relevant to your discussion. You are not limited from using material found in later segments of the course should you find any of them applicable.
- When examining the process of how the law came into effect and critical sentiments/voices, you may examine alternate news sites and social media. However, you need to articulate the limitations of these sources of information when citing them. You must also attempt to take an actual look at the law itself and its incremental changes by going into Singapore Statues Online website at
- Your choice of examples should focus on Singapore’s context but may also include comparative illustrations of others.
- You must use credible references such as your course material, to define key concepts and/or theories. You are also expected to do additional research using academic journals (from databases such as JSTOR, SOCIndex and others in the library’s e-resources) and credible news sources from Factiva, Newslink, etc.
Question
Read the following journal article on youth gang offenders in Singapore:
Chi Meng Chu, Michael Daffern, Stuart D.M. Thomas, Yaming Ang & Mavis Long (2013). ‘Criminal Attitudes and Psychopathic Personality Attributes of Youth Gang Offenders in Singapore’, Psychology, Crime & Law, DOI:10.1080/1068316X.2013.772182 at:
As well as this article about a former youth gang member:
Ling, L. B. (2019, October 16). ‘Life After Prison: After 6 Years of being in a gang, he is now pursuing a future in music’, MOSGTV at:Based on information from both articles and applying three relevant theories on youth delinquency, answer the following questions:
a. Hypothesise to what extent deviant attitudes and personality characteristics could have already been present in local youths joining gangs or whether gang affiliation subsequently created delinquent attitudes.
b. Critically analyse the potential impact of these inherent traits leading local youth to join gangs against societal influences and the role played by a criminogenic environment.
c. Examine the current approach used in Singapore to deter and rehabilitate delinquent youth. Stemming from this examination, develop a potential intervention strategy based on local social control mechanisms and/or any other progressive social control strategies that might be effective in deterring Singaporean youth from joining gangs and helping to rehabilitate ex-gang members.
d. Evaluate how much weight should be given to the idea that such youth were merely exhibiting youthful exuberance and they will naturally ‘grow out’ of delinquency as they mature.
Question
Read the following journal article which features an interview with Ulrich Beck – a prominent German sociologist who came up with conceptions such as “Risk Society,” “Reflexive Modernisation,” and the “Elevator Effect”.
Beck talks about a ‘Second Modernity’ in which the focus is no longer purely about conflicts arising from inequalities but rather the uncertainties of our times and the way society handles risks. Mass media has not only made these risks more visible to everyone but has also created a heightened sense of insecurity. There are also actors and groups that capitalise on this politics of fear. Hobbes’ conceptualisation of the nation state as the patron of security has become a prominent notion in these uncertain times. This ‘Second Modernity’ is also characterised by changing social norms and power structures.
Keeping in mind the insights from this article, do a global scanning of key issues affecting Singapore’s security landscape from the start of 2020 till today. Base your research on local media reports, political statements and credible studies done on this topic. Identify three acts of deviance arising from these issues that the state and the general population have stressed as a priority, and answer the following questions:
a. Evaluate the extent to which the state and Singapore’s criminal justice system have responded to these acts of deviance/crimes by a policy of maintaining social order through laws and a conservative crime control approach. Apply relevant sociological perspectives from conflict perspectives, right realism, and administrative criminology to support your inferences.
b. Conduct a comparative study of crime prevention approaches used to address these new acts of deviance/crimes in Singapore against approaches used to deal with similar acts in another country.
c. Conceptualise a crime prevention approach and model of policing or tweaks to the present criminal justice system that you feel would better address these new forms of deviance/criminality arising from the ‘Second Modernity’ that Singapore is potentially facing.
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