Social Control

Social control is a central concept in the sociology of deviance. A broad term with a variety of sociological definitions, it typically refers to how people are [Page 653]held in check by various social arrangements such as the family, the state, the economic system, or the norms and rules of their culture. Social control is often used synonymously with social order when referring to the ongoing maintenance of coordination and harmony across society. In the sociology of deviance, social control specifically refers to all the mechanisms and resources by which members of society try to ensure the norm-conforming behavior of those around them.

Edward A. Ross introduced social control into the sociological lexicon in 1896. In that year, Ross published an article in the American Journal of Sociology titled “Social Control.” Ross distinguished between social coordination, or the rules and arrangements that efficiently order societal activity, and social control, which regulates the incompatible or disruptive actions in society. Although this distinction between social control and social coordination is no longer prevalent in sociology, since that time, social control has been used as an expansive concept for explaining methods involved in the regulation, integration, coordination, or modification of individual or group behavior to some normative standard of conduct.

In the sociology of deviance, social controls are generally responses to deviant attitudes, conditions, or behaviors. This traditional view of controlling deviance is reactive; for example, a person commits a deviant act (e.g., burglary), and the police are called; a person expresses an offensive attitude (e.g., sexism), and he or she is given the silent treatment by friends; or a person is born with an abnormal condition (e.g., stuttering), and he or she is not called on by the teacher to speak in class. Although the involvement of police is an example of formal social control, in deviance the informal and often subtle responses to certain attitudes, behaviors, or conditions are considered methods of ordering and coordinating society and interaction. Formal social control is generally a response to a violation of the law or institutional regulations, or behavior that would be considered criminal, while informal controls occur through sanctions that are not codified into law or subject to the legal system.

In the sociology of deviance, social controls have traditionally been termed sanctions, which are responses to a violation of norms. Sanctions can be either positive or negative, as they are socially constructed expressions of approval or disapproval. Positive sanctions develop conformity and control by rewarding people for following norms. Positive sanctions can be formal, such as an official admittance to graduate school for hard work and high grades, or informal, which could include kind words or gestures. Negative sanctions encourage conforming behavior by reprimanding people for violating normative behavior. Like positive sanctions, negative sanctions can also be formal, such as a speeding ticket or a prison sentence, or informal, such as an angry friend or dirty looks from fellow citizens. Sanctions are important in the field of deviance when examining social control, as they offer people incentives or punishments for certain forms of behavior.

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