Informal Social Control

Informal Sanctions

The informal sanctions imposed by family, friends, and neighbors may include approval, praise, avoidance, guilt, ostracism, ridicule, or various forms of public humiliation. An informal sanction may be something as simple as a disapproving glance directed at a spouse who has told an inappropriate joke. Sanctions applied to “rate busters,” employees who consistently perform beyond the expected level of production for their position, can range from ostracism to equipment sabotage. Because individuals value good relationships with others whom they see on a daily basis, these sanctions can be powerful deterrents to nonconformity.

Informal sanctions can be much more severe than social disapproval, however. Violations of omertà, the code of conduct established and enforced by Sicilian and Italian American Mafias, have resulted in serious injury and death to violators. Most criminal organizations have not been as tightly structured as Mafia families, but they share a need to severely sanction “snitching” to the authorities about the group's operations. Persons who engage in illegal business enterprises do not have recourse to the criminal or civil law to resolve disagreements; instead, they resort to what is sometimes called “street justice.” Of course, these violent attempts to enforce organizational norms are violations of legal codes and subject to formal social control by the police and other elements of the criminal justice system.

Also, informal sanctions can be imposed along with formal sanctions. When an individual experiences a public sanction like an arrest, he or she will most likely experience informal sanctions within his or her community because he or she has violated both the norms of the community and of the society as a whole. The most common sanction in this case would be avoidance; people tend to shun known or suspected criminals.

Informal Social Control and Neighborhood Crime

Although attention to informal social control has often focused on small groups, several criminological theories identify informal social control as an important mechanism for reducing crime and delinquency in local areas. Social disorganization theory suggests that communities with heterogeneous, mobile populations and high levels of poverty will be unable to control the behaviors of residents and outsiders in public space. In other words, their ability to effectively maintain informal social control is diminished. The concept of the defended neighborhood also highlights informal social control as a means to maintain neighborhood public safety. This idea focuses on the reputation of neighborhood residents influencing the behavior of outsiders. If a neighborhood has a reputation for low tolerance of unruly behavior, then outsiders will generally behave according to the neighborhood norms. Broken windows theory implies a similar idea of informal social control. In this case, if communities have a common goal of cleanliness and order that is reflected in public space, then crime and delinquency will be deterred because it sends the message to potential offenders that the residents of the area care about what happens in their neighborhood. Routine activities theory suggests that in the presence of a capable guardian, criminal and delinquent acts are deterred. From this perspective, a capable guardian is the protective factor, and the behavior of the potential offender is controlled by the presence of an individual or surveillance. All of these theories indicate that the communities that visibly show their commitment to protecting their homes will more likely enjoy reduced levels of criminal offending. Interestingly, they suggest that given a favorable set of neighborhood characteristics, informal social control can be as effective in upholding the criminal law as the formal social control exerted by the police.

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