Social Control
Sociologists define social control as the way that the norms, rules, laws, and
structures of society regulate human behavior. It is a necessary part of social
order, for societies could not exist without controlling their populations.
Achieving Social Control
Social control is achieved through social, economic, and institutional
structures. Societies cannot function without an agreed-upon and enforced
social order that makes daily life and a complex division of labor possible.
Without it, chaos and confusion would reign.
The lifelong process of socialization that each person experiences is the
primary way social order develops. Through this process, people are taught
from birth the behavioral and interactional expectations common to their
family, peer groups, community, and greater society. Socialization teaches
us how to think and behave in accepted ways, and in doing so, effectively
controls our participation in society.
The physical organization of society is also a part of social control. For example,
paved streets and traffic signals regulate, at least in theory, the behavior of people
when they drive vehicles. Motorists know that they should not drive through stop
signs or red lights, though some do anyway. And, for the most part, sidewalks and
crosswalks manage foot traffic. Pedestrians know that they should not run out into
the middle of the street, though jaywalking is fairly common. Lastly, the structure
of places, such as aisles in grocery stores, determines how we move through such
businesses.
When we don't conform to social expectations, we face correction of some sort.
This correction can take many forms, including confused and disapproving looks or
difficult conversations with family, peers, and authority figures. Refusal to meet
social expectations may also result in severe outcomes such as social ostracization.
Two Types of Social Control
• Social control tends to take two forms: • City, state, and federal agencies such as
informal or formal. Informal social the police or the military enforce formal
control involves conformity to the norms social control. In many cases, a simple
and values of society as well as adoption police presence is enough to achieve this
of a belief system learned through the form of control. In others, police might
process of socialization. This form of intervene in a situation that involves
social control is enforced by family unlawful or dangerous behavior to stop
members and primary caregivers, the misconduct and maintain social
teachers, coaches peers, and colleagues. control.
• Rewards and punishment enforce informal • Other government agencies, including
social control. Reward often takes the those that regulate building codes or the
form of praise or compliments, good goods businesses sell, enforce formal
grades, job promotions, and social social control also. Ultimately, it is up to
popularity. Punishment tends to involve formal bodies like the judiciary and penal
relationships ending, teasing or ridicule, systems to issue penalties when someone
poor grades, being fired from work, violates the laws that define formal social
or withdrawal of communication. control.
Agencies Of Social Control
Agents of social control are the people or groups who work to influence or regulate the behavior of
others. They can be found in all levels of society, from the family to the government.
•Education: The inculcation of civic norms, which transpires at a tender age for most children, is often
inspired by the desire of those in authority to ensure that the future citizens would remain committed to
upholding that particular society’s abiding values . The recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and
elementary school courses on democracy exemplify this.
•Family: The control exerted on individuals by their parents, siblings, spouses, and relatives seldom
employs clear rules. However, children learn how to respect authority from their parents. Siblings may
aid one in discerning early the appropriate standards for acceptable behavior among one’s peers.
•Community:Implicit threats of ridicule, shame, and ostracization pervade most mechanisms of social
control employed by various communities. The prospect of exclusion from a house of worship may
procure and preserve a religious group’s members’ fidelity to orthodox beliefs. Likewise, the hope of
reward (extratemporal bliss, or even human respect) may inspire members to assist each other in times
of need.
•Criminal Justice System:Severe punishments meted out to convicted criminals may serve to deter
future felonies. The temporary removal of wrongdoers from society at large both impedes their
recruitment of others into crime and renders them incapable of committing endless infractions with
impunity. Cities with higher incarceration rates, thus, are likely to have lower crime rates (Sampson,
1986).
Direct and Indirect Social Control
Karl Mannheim has categorized social control into direct and indirect forms.
Direct social control involves the direct regulation of the conduct of individuals, invariably by
persons close to such individuals, or primary groups.
These persons/groups may include parents, neighbors, older siblings, grandparents, teachers,
and friends.
Indirect social control involves the regulation of conduct by more distant authorities.
Secondary groups, such as academic and cultural institutions may exert indirect social control
via cultural taboos, public opinion, and social customs.
The influence of direct social control is more pronounced and durable than that of its indirect
counterpart.
Positive and Negative Means
Kimball Young (1927) has identified and elaborated upon positive and negative social control.
Positive means of social control involve the provision of positive incentives to procure the
compliance of individuals with societal norms. The promise of reward herein may range from
pecuniary benefits to the public approval of conformity stemming from the internalization of
various social norms.
Awards bestowed upon students for excellence in academics, titles granted to winning varsity
sports teams, and honors were given to soldiers demonstrating fortitude on the battlefield are
some examples.
Negative social control discourages nonconformity by penalizing deviant conduct. Incurring
harsher curfews from one’s parents by violating relatively lenient ones, is an evident example.
Criticism for incompetence, mulcts for parking infractions, imprisonment for theft, and capital
punishment for murder are all instances of negative social control that are designed to ensure
that most people in a society would gratify its normative expectations for public peace.