ASSIGNMENT

Social Control

Submitted to: Dr Sadia Nawaz

Submitted by: Anusha (1425), Faiza (1441), Laiba (1408),
Raffia (1409), Reena (1461)

International Islamic University

Islamabad
Social Control
Social control is the basic mean of social solidarity and conformity rather than deviance. It
controls the behavior, attitudes and actions of individuals to balance their social situation. Man is
born free but in chains everywhere he lives. A person living in a society has to adopt certain
rules and regulation. These are the social norms on which the whole society is running. For
smooth functions and running of these norms these controls are necessary. It regulates
harmony and brings unity among individuals of the same group. It also affects socialization
process. When social norms are followed by the people of a society, it means that they adopt
conformity to society and establish control. The deviancy from these norms leads to punishment
may be lighter or serious, which touch the boarder of law.

Meaning of Social Control

It means to bring people of society within the limits and compel them to adopt conformity to
social norms.
If life were static and its values remained harmonized by the absence of any element of change
in them, the condition would speak of such a state of solidarity in society that no concept of
social control would be required for any consideration. But truth, human life is marked by
dynamism and, certain dominant values in social life are liable to change and rethinking be
made upon them.

Definition of Social Control

According to Fairchild, It is the process which helps a society to secure conformity to
individuals as well as groups.

Horton & Hunt says that social control is a complete process where a society provides
security to its members and conformity to their prospects.

Mannheim says, it is the collection of methods which can help to influence human behavior to
retain social order. It is very clear that it stops deviation to social norms and bring control and
conformity in a society. It is the collective behavior through which the process of social order
remains constant.

Characteristic of Social Control:

(1) Social Regulations Are Normative in Nature:
They are standards which individuals are required to attain and any failure to reach such
standards may be regarded as a lapse. Every individual, for example, must speak the truth and
lies, when detected, are looked down upon as acts that fall short of social dignity.

(2) Social Regulations Are Relative as well as Partial:

Regulations are regarded as relative since, as the authors observe, they primarily make secure
the interests of dominant sections of the society. Such sections may be religious or politically
dominant and, in modern times, economic power is a strong determinant of interests that have
to be preserved. Codes and regulations are partial in the sense that no one category of them is
effective enough to fully control human thoughts and actions; different agencies of social control
complement the work of each other.
(3) The Codes and Regulations that Affect Social Control Can Emanate
from Different Agencies:
For example, there may be rules and regulations of voluntary ‘associations’ like the club or the
church. Each set of rules has sanctions for violations and they vary in degree and intensity. A
club or a professional organization may have certain agreed rules that work as its code and the
sanctions take the nature of reprimand, suspension or expulsion. Similarly, ‘communal’ codes
may regulate important customs as are observed in a community and the penalty for their
disregard or violation may be ridicule or ostracism respectively.

(4) No Regulatory Code is Effective if it is not Backed by Sanctions that

may be Imposed in Concrete Terms:
For example, the moral and the religious codes now-a-days are less effective than they had
been before, since the concepts of sin and sufferings in hell appear more as superstitious than
as logical thoughts to modern men; but the intentions of the state are felt in very clear terms
when its civil or criminal laws are violated.

Types of Social Control:

Karl Mannheim maintains that social control may be ‘direct’ or ‘indirect (Formal and
Informal).

Informal Control:
When asked who are the most important people in your life, you may say your parents, siblings,
or friends. And when asked who are the people that have influenced you most in your life, again
you may say your parents, friends, or maybe even colleagues.
Family, friends, and colleagues are three types of people that exert informal social control, a
type of social control that stems from the approval or disapproval of people we associate with
and consider important.
When we are growing up, it is our family that teaches us the foundations of what is 'normal'
thought or behavior and what our values should be. These behaviors and values may be
particular to the family or they can be particular to society in general.
Our family helps us develop and understand morals as well as the self or a conscience. This is
the part of ourselves that exhibits self-awareness, is able to feel guilt, exercise self-control, and
a lot more. Our friends and colleagues can do similar things. They can teach us important
lessons, or they may exert peer pressure that will cause us to behave in different ways.

Informal means of Social Control:

1. Norms:
Norms are rooted in the institution. They provide the standard of behaviour and are regulatory in
character. The choice of individual for striving towards the cultural goal is limited by institutional
norms. These provide the guideline for action. The norms give cohesion to the society.
2.Value:
It consists of culturally defined goals. It is held out as a legitimate object of realisation for all or
for diversely located members of the society. It involves various degrees of “sentiments and
significance”. These may consist of inspirational reference. Values are “goals worth striving for”.
These are basic, though not exclusive.

3. Folk Ways:
Folk are a people with a community sense. They have a uniform and a common way of living.
This constitutes the folkway. These are, according to F.B. Renter and C.W. Hart, “simple habits
of action common to the members of the group; they are the ways of folk that are somewhat
standardized and have some degree of traditional sanction for their persistence”.

4. Mores:
Mores are such folkways as are based on value judgement and are deeply rooted in the
community life. Any disregard shown to these invokes sanction. According to Green, mores are
“Common ways of acting which are more definitely regarded as right and proper than the
folkways and which brings greater certainty and severity of punishment if violated…”

5. Custom:
Custom is “a rule or norm of action.” It is the result of some social expediency. It is followed as it
involves sentiment based on some rational element. It is automatic in character; no special
agency is required to enforce it. Any disregard shown to it invokes social censure; It is enforced
as it is.

formal Control:
While friends, family, and colleagues often exert subtle or informal forms of social control that
we may even choose to disregard, the same is harder to say for some types of formal social
control. This refers to organizations or systems that use strict and delineated rules, values,
morals, and the like that we are commonly told or compelled to obey.
Whereas informal social control involves people we see on a regular basis and sometimes on a
whim, formal social control involves people we sometimes never see at all (like elected officials)
or, if we do, it's in a very structured way.
Examples of formal social control include the government. The government uses laws and
courts to exercise social control. The government tries to protect those following the rules and
capture and punish those who do not. Governmental social control goes beyond the legal
system.

formal means of Social Control:

1. Education:
Education is a great vehicle of social control. After the family, it is the class room, the peer
group and the leaders which exercise influence on a child by our ancients. The differences
between-Dvija and Ekaja emphasized the importance of education in the social structure of the
ancient society.
2. Law:
Law is for all practical purposes, as observed by Professor Holland “a general rule of external
action enforced by a sovereign political authority”. It is the general condition prescribed by the
State, and the members of body politic are expected to follow it in given conditions. It is uniform
and is meant for all.

3. Coercion:
Force as a means of social control is as ancient as the society itself. In variating degree, it has
been used by all societies. Some societies even now resort to force against the deviants. Our
society has not given it a high recognition. Traditionally, our political ethics is based on
nonviolence or least violence.
The only state that gave up force and coercion as the instrument of State policy was the Asoka
State. Gandhi made nonviolence a weapon, against the strongest empire, the British. In all
civilized societies, penal codes are reviewed to humanize the law of crime. Force breeds
revenge, it does not reform.

Agencies of Social Control:

There are various agencies through which social control is exercised.

1. Family:
Family is a very important instrument agency of social control. On the one hand it socializes an
individual and on the other it trains him about social behavior. Family prescribes rules and
regulations that the members have to follow. These rules and regulations form a part of social
control. Family teaches the child to conform to the norms of the society. It exercises control over
its members to bring about the desired action.

2. State:
The state, as the society’s overall regulative system, is the chief agency of social; control. It
exercises control over its members through legislations, the police, the armed forces and the
prisons. Really speaking, emergence of secondary group is a gift of modern complicated social
order.

3. Educational Institutions:
The educational institutions – schools are powerful agencies of social control and these
institutions are committed to the molding of citizens. Formal education in modern societies
communicate ideas and values which play a larger part in regulating behavior. Education
teaches to conform to the norms of the society. Education provides a conscious teaching
programmed that assist society in socializing children so that they will absorb its values, beliefs
and norms.

4. Neighborhood:
The neighborhood reinforces the individual family as an agency of social control. In the
neighborhood group controls traditionally take the form of mores. They are kept alive and
enforced by the older members of the locality.
5. Public Opinion:
Opinion of the people is the most important method of social control in a democratic set up.
Every man tries to escape from the criticism and condemnation by the society. He therefore,
tries to act according to public opinion and public sentiments. In a democratic set up, public
opinion is more effective and important than any other agency.

6. Propaganda and Press:

Propaganda is the deliberate effort to control the behavior and relationships of social groups
through the use of methods which affect the feelings and attitudes of the individuals who make
up the group. Radio, television, press and literature not only influence the ideas of the people
but also bring about the changes in the way of life and way of thinking.

7. Economic Organization:
With the rise of modern industrial organization, the increase in the size of communities, a shift in
the distribution of social control among the major institutions has occurred. The agencies which
have risen to the forefront of social control are economic organization, education and
Government. The fear of losing a job compels an individual to follow the rules and regulations of
the industry.

Need of Social Control:

Social control is necessary for an orderly social life. The society has to regulate and pattern
individual behavior to maintain normative social order. Without social control the organization of
the society is about to get disturbed. If the individual is effectively socialized, he confirms to the
accepted ways from force of habit as well as from his desire of being accepted and approved by
other persons.
If he is inadequately socialized, he has a tendency to deviate from the accepted ways, but he is
forced towards conformity by the pressures of social control. According to Kimball Young, it is
necessary “to bring about conformity, solidarity and continuity of a particular group or society”. It
is possible only through social control. Society has to make use of its mechanism to accomplish
the necessary order and discipline.
Herbert Spencer has put forwarded the view that society is a collection of group of individuals.
Man lives in society because it has a utility. Through society he is able to preserve his identity
and views. In order to preserve his identity and characteristics, he has to exercise some control
for which certain rules and institutions are created. These agencies of social control are helpful
for preserving the identity of the individuals and society.