Q.What is social control? Do you think the modes of social control in different spheres of society are different? Discuss.

Social control is the process by which society brings members who deviate from expected behaviour back into line, and it works very differently depending on where it operates. …

Social control refers to the various means a society uses to bring its unruly or non-conforming members back into line with expected behaviour. Sociology offers two contrasting theoretical accounts of what social control is really doing: functionalists see it as a stabilising mechanism — the use of force where necessary, plus the enforcement of shared values, both aimed at restraining deviance and easing conflict so that social order and cohesion are preserved. Conflict theorists see it instead as a tool through which dominant groups impose their own interests on the rest of society, with even formal law read as an expression of the powerful's interests rather than a neutral set of rules.

Whichever theoretical lens one uses, the actual modes of social control clearly differ across different spheres of life. In the state and legal sphere, control is formal and codified — courts, police, statutes — backed ultimately by the state's capacity for legitimate force, though this ultimate force is used sparingly, with its mere threat usually sufficing. In the family and peer group, by contrast, control is informal and uncodified — a frown, a word of criticism, approval or disapproval, gentle ridicule — yet within these small, tightly-knit primary groups such informal mechanisms can be remarkably effective precisely because members care deeply about each other's opinion. …