The term, ‘social control’, is widely used in sociology to refer to the social processes by which the behaviour of individuals or groups is regulated. Since all societies have norms and values governing conduct (a society without some such norms and values is inconceivable), all equally have some mechanisms for ensuring conformity to those norms and for dealing with deviance. Social control is consequently a pervasive feature of society, of interest to a broad range of sociologists having differing theoretical persuasions and substantive interests, and not just to sociologists of deviance.

The sociological issue is not the existence of social control, but determining its precise nature and identifying the mechanisms at work in specific social contexts. The sociologically significant questions include:

• Who exercises control?
• What techniques of control are employed?
• How far can and do individuals or groups resist processes of social control?
• In whose interest does control operate?

The answers to such questions vary greatly. Normative functionalists tend to suggest that social control is of value to society as a whole, since it is essential to the maintenance of social order; others point to the sectional interests that are served in the process of social control, emphasizing the lack of normative consensus, the differences in power that are involved and the close linkage between power and control.

Analyses of the forms of social control differ. A common distinction is between repressive or coercive forms of control – so-called hard techniques, including direct physical constraint – and the softer ideological forms that operate through the shaping of ideas, values and attitudes. On the one hand, the techniques of repressive or coercive social control are particularly characteristic of institutions such as the police and the military. On the contrary, the techniques of softer ideological forms refer to institutions such as the mass media.

Means of Social Control

Sociologists usually classify the mechanisms of social control into two types:

1. Informal means of social control, and
2. Formal means of social control

1. Informal Means of Social Control

In primary groups, the relationships are close, direct and intimate. Social control is often maintained by informal mechanisms such as customs, traditions, folkways, mores and religion. These are adopted means of informal groups. Informal means of social control include established and accepted institutions relating to socialization, education, family, marriage, religion, etc.