Social control is the study of the mechanisms,
in the form of patterns of pressure, through which society maintains social order and cohesion
. … Social control is typically employed by group members in response to anyone it considers deviant, problematic, threatening, or undesirable, with the goal of ensuring conformity.
:
the rules and standards of society that circumscribe individual action through the inculcation of conventional sanctions
and the imposition of formalized mechanisms.
Social control is the term sociologists apply to those mechanisms by which any society maintains a normative social system. It refers to all the ways and
means by which society enforces conformity to its norms
. The individual internalises social norms and these become part of his personality.
Social control refers to societal and political mechanisms that regulate individual and group behaviour in an attempt to gain conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group. Sociologists identify two basic forms of social control –
informal control and formal control
.
Social control is established by encouraging individuals to conform and obey social norms, both through formal and informal means. … For example, people tend
to follow social norms when eating or watching television
, regardless of whether others are present.
Nature of Social Control Social control
denotes some kind of influence
. The influence may be exercised in various ways by means of public opinion, coercion, religion, morality, ideology, leadership, law, customs, values, folkways, etc. It is essentially use by the society or community.
- The Penal technique.
- The grievance remedial technique.
- The private arranging technique.
- The constitutive technique.
- The administrative regulatory technique.
- The administrative regulatory technique.
- Fiscal technique.
Formal social controls are
actions that regulate human behavior that are based on law
. Informal social controls are those that serve the same purpose of regulating human behavior but are not based on laws.
It derives from functionalist theories of crime and was developed by
Ivan Nye
(1958), who proposed that there were three types of control: Direct: by which punishment is threatened or applied for wrongful behavior, and compliance is rewarded by parents, family, and authority figures.
Nye focused on the family unit as a source of control and specified three types of control:
(1) direct control, or the use of punishments
and rewards to incentivize particular behaviors; (2) indirect control, or the affectionate identification with individuals who adhere to social norms; and (3) internal control, or …
Social control is
necessary to protect social interests and satisfy common needs
. If social control is removed and every individual is left to behave freely so-ciety would be reduced to a state of lawlessness.
Regardless of its source, the goal of social control is
to maintain conformity to established norms and rules
. Social control is typically employed by group members in response to anyone it considers deviant, problematic, threatening, or undesirable, with the goal of ensuring conformity.
Family is
an important agency of social control
. It is the first place where an individual is socialized. He learns various methods of living, behavior patterns, convention etc. Through these, mechanism family forces the individual to conform the custom, folkways and modes of the group.
- It is an influence exerted through social suggestions, public opinion, religion and appeal.
- Influence is exercised by society bitterly than a single person or individual, such groups may be in the form of a family, union, club etc.
Informal social control —the reactions of individuals and groups that bring about conformity to norms and laws—includes peer and community pressure,
bystander intervention in a crime
, and collective responses such as citizen patrol groups. … In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion.
The concept of negative social control covers
systematic attempts to enforce norms –including in the family
– that restrict individual freedom and rights under the law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. … Negative social control can lead to honour-related psychological and physical violence.
