ABSTRACT

Introductory Remarks The social group is one of the most important sociological concepts affecting criminology, but there is no need here to go more fully into the details of its very comprehensive literature.1 There are many definitions of the group, for example 'a plurality of persons who interact with one another in a given context more than they interact with anyone else'.2 In Merton's definition (p. 285) this element of the comparative frequency of the interaction is not present. While every individual is born into a group, the number of groups, to which an individual may belong, will differ greatly according to his status and functions in society and also in accordance with his personal inclinations. Groups are not identical with classes, as they may consist of members belonging to very different social classes, but the latter may be regarded as 'quasi-groups' (see above, Chapter 20). Groups are either primary or secondary ones. The former, corresponding to the German Gemeinschaft, are small, intimate, face-to-face associations such as the family, the small school class, the small gang, or a small peasant community, whereas secondary groups are larger and more impersonal, such as the nation, the army, church, trade union, large town; it is the German Gesellschaft, to use the two terms made famous by the German sociologist Ferdinand Toennies.3