Page 29 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 3

Social controls take two basic forms:

1. Formal controls involve written rules, such as
laws that apply equally to everyone in a society and
non-legal rules that apply to everyone playing a
particular role in an organisation (such as a school
or factory). Sanctions are enforced by agencies of
social control, such as the police and legal system.
While formal written rules tell everyone within a
group exactly what is and is not acceptable
behaviour rule infringement (deviance) brings with
it the threat of formal sanction - such as a fine or
imprisonment for breaking the law or being sacked
for breaking a company's organisational rules.

2. Informal controls exist to reward or punish
acceptable / unacceptable behaviour between
people in everyday, informal, settings (such as the
family) and don’t normally involve written rules
and procedures. Rather, they operate through
informal enforcement mechanisms that include
things like ridicule, sarcasm, disapproving looks,
personal violence and so forth.

Such controls mainly apply to the regulation of
primary relationships and groups, although there
are exceptions because primary relationships can
occur in secondary groups - a teacher, for example,
may also be a friend or even a relative.

They also relate to the "unofficial rules" we create
in informal groups and while some might be
generally applicable (punching people in the face is
probably universally unacceptable - unless you're in
a boxing ring) the majority are specific to particular
groups. Swearing among friends, for example, may
not invite sanction, but swearing at your mother or
father might.

A final aspect of social control is the idea of self
control. We don’t need to be constantly told where
behavioural boundaries lie because we learn the
norms - and what might happen if we break them -
that apply in certain situations. If you continually
skip your sociology class you may be asked to leave
the course and if you don’t want this to happen, you
control your behaviour to obey the attendance norm.

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