ASSIGNMENT ON SOCIOLOGY

TOPIC

SOCIAL CONTROL: AGENCIES

AND MEANS OF SOCIAL
CONTROL

24-09-2019

SUBMITTED BY
PAUL PRADEEP RAJ J
19-PSW-031

SUBMITTED TO
PROF. ANDREW
 DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK
LOYOYA COLLEGE
CHENNAI - 34

INTRODUCTION
Social control is the basic mean of social solidarity and conformity rather
than deviance. It controls the behaviour, 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.
Agencies of social control
There are several agencies of social control. Thai means social control
is exercised through various agencies. The important agencies of
social control are stated below:
Family: is an important agency of social control. It is the first place
where an individual is socialized. He learns various methods of living,
behaviour patterns, convention etc. from the family. He is taught to
behave and respect social laws and obey social controls. He learns
customs, folk ways, traditions and modes from the family. Family
influenced the individual directly through suggestion, persuasion,
praise, blame, ridicule, criticism etc. Through these, mechanism
family forces the individual to conform the custom, folk ways and
modes of the group.
Neighbourhood: is a simple and specific part of a community. It has
a feeling or sentiment of local unit. There may be more than one
neighbourhood in a community. The neighbourhood is the first
community with which the individual comes into contact with. It
exists, a deep influence on its members as an agency of social control.
The local neighbourhood reinforces or strengthens the individual
family as an agency of social control. It comes only after the family in
social importance. The elder members of the neighbourhood or
locality, who are very intimate to one another, keep group modes
alive and enforce them in the locality. The local neighbourhood like
the family, exercises direct control over the behaviour of the
individuals through direct suggestions, persuasion, praise, blame,
ridicule, criticism etc.
Church: is regarded as an institutionalized expression of religion. It
serves as an agency of social control. In the past church was a
powerful agency of social control for quite some time. The church and
the priests were held in high esteem. The authority of the church was
recognized and accepted by the people. As a result, no body could
disobey its order. The church had power to dethrone kings who did
not accept its authority during this period.
Religion: Religion serves as an important agency of social control. It
is religion, which supports the folk ways and modes of a society by
playing super natural sanctions behind them. It adopts negative as
well as positive means to regulate the behaviour of the individuals in
society.
The School: is a very powerful agency: of social control. It exercises
social control through education. The child learns many things from
the school, which he cannot learn from other sources. The child is
taught to obey the discipline, which a student learns at school lasts
with him throughout his life. In the college, also the students are
required to obey social controls. The school and college or
educational institutions are next to family as agencies of social control.
It is the class room the peer group and the leaders who exercise
influence on the child for his future role in society. Education in
modern times is a very powerful means of social control. It is
education, which makes all efforts to discipline the mind of the
student in the school so that he can realize the importance of social
control.
Law: is a powerful method of control. The state runs its
administration through the government. It enforces law within its
territory with the help of the police, the army, the prison and the court;
it enacts laws to regulate the lives of the people. The deviants or the
violators of social rules are punished as per law; the state carries out
certain function by means of law. E.A. Ross says that ‘law is the most
specialized and highly furnished engine of social control employed by
society. It is law, which prevents the people from indulging in
antisocial activities. The lawbreakers are punished by the law of the
state. It helps in governing our social conduct and behaviours. Laws
are essential in strengthening social control violation of law
considered a punishable offence. In short, law is an important formal
means of Control to regulate the individual behaviour in society.
Administration: is very powerful and the most effective instrument
of social control. It forces the individual to obey social control. The
administrations punish the violators with the help of the police, the
army etc.
Force: Physical force or coercion is an important means of social
control. It is ancient as society itself. It is essential for social progress.
Even these days some societies resort to it against the deviants or
those who disobey social norms. Every state has its own armed forces
or police force. It is an effective weapon to prevent people from
indulging in anti-social activities. It also makes people, obey social
order. The state carries out its functions by means of law, which is
ultimately backed by physical force. As an important agency of social,
control the state exercises its force over its people through various
means such as the government law, administration, the armed forces,
the police and the like.
Public Opinion: is very powerful in the democratic age. It not only
controls the behaviour of people but also controls the government.
People these days are more concerned with the opinion held by the
public. Fear of public opinion in general makes people control their
conduct and behaviour. The state controls the behaviour of the people
through public opinion and mould people in favour of its policies. It
forms public opinion through various media like the newspaper,
cinema, radio, television etc.
Propaganda: is a systematic attempt by a individual or individuals to
control the attitudes of people through suggestions and consequently,
their actions. With the development of means of mass communication,
propaganda has become an effective means of social control. The
state controls the people through this powerful means of social control
namely propaganda.

Meaning of Social Control:

Generally speaking, social control is nothing but control of the society
over individuals. In order to maintain the organisation and the order of
the society, man has to be kept under some sort of control. This
control is necessary in order to have desired behaviour from the
individual and enable him to develop social qualities.
Society in order to exist and progress has to exercise a certain control
over its members since any marked deviation from the established
ways is considered a threat to its welfare. Such control has been
termed by sociologists as social control.
Social control is the term sociologists apply to those mechanisms by
which any society maintains a normative social system. It refers to all
the ways and means by which society enforces conformity to its
norms. The individual internalises social norms and these become
part of his personality. In the process of socialisation the growing
child learns the values of his own groups as well as of the larger
society and the ways of doing and thinking that are deemed to be right
and proper.
But every social group makes errors, great or small, in the socialising
the young, says Lapiere. Even at best, the internalisation be so the
social norms can scarcely of complete that a person’s own desires
exactly coincide with the social expectations of his group.
Hence, there is some deviations from group norms in every group.
But any deviation beyond a certain degree of tolerance is met with
resistance, for any marked deviation from the accepted norms is
considered a threat to the welfare of the group.
Hence sanctions – the rewards or punishments- are applied to control
the behaviour of the individual and to bring the nonconformists into
line. All these efforts by the group are called social control, which is
concerned with the failures in socialisation. Social control, as says
Lapiere, is thus a corrective for inadequate socialisation.
According to E.A. Ross, the individual has deep-rooted sentiments
that help him to cooperate with other fellow members to work for
social welfare. These sentiments are sympathy, sociability and a sense
of justice. But these sentiments by themselves are not enough to
suppress the self-seeking impulses of the individual.
Society has to make use of its mechanism to accomplish the necessary
order and discipline. This mechanism is called social control. As Ross
defines, “Social control refers to the system of devices whereby
society brings its members into conformity with the accepted standard
of behaviour.
Ogburn and Nimkoff have said that social control refers to the
patterns of pressure which society exerts to maintain order and
established rules”. Gill in say, “Social control is the system of
measures, suggestions, persuasion, restrain and coercion by whatever
means including physical force by which society brings into
conformity to the approved pattern of behaviour, a subgroup or by
which a group moulds into conformity its members”.
According to Maclver,” Social control is the way in which entire
social order coheres and maintains itself – how it operates as a whole,
as a changing equilibrium.”
In fact social control may be defined as any influence which the
society exerts upon its members for the purpose of providing the
welfare of the group. It is the way in which our social order coheres
and maintains itself. It is that mechanism by which a community or
group operates as a whole and maintains a changing equilibrium.
There are various means and agencies by which individuals are
induced or compelled to confirm to the norms of the society.

Reference books

Fundamentals of Sociology by Gisbert

Sociology of Education by S.S. Chandra and Rajendra K.
Sharma