Social control is the use of formal and informal mechanisms by society to enforce dominant beliefs, values, and behavior .
the means and processes by which a group secures its members' conformity to its expectations - to its values, its ideology, its norms, and to the appropriate roles that are attached to the various status positions in the group. Some maintain that social workers are social control agents in society. Structural social work analyzes the social control function of social work and recognizes that the profession of social work functions, in part, to control certain people and groups in society in order to maintain and legitimate social divisions and the social order.
a framework of rewards and sanctions that channel behavior.
control exerted (actively or passively) by group action
all the ways by which members of a culture encourage and enforce conformity to cultural norms
The capacity of a society to regulate itself according to desired principles and values without the use of repression or coerced conformity.
Attitudes, behaviors, and mechanisms that keep people in their place. Overt social controls include laws, fines, imprisonment, and violence. Subtle ones include ostracism and withdrawal of status and affection.
Systematic practices developed by social groups to encourage conformity and to discourage deviance.
Social control refers to social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliances to the rules of society. Social control is present in all societies, if only in the control mechanisms used to prevent the establishment of chaos or anomie.