Law and Social Control

Law and Social Control

Introduction

Social control as a theory involves the core mechanisms responsible for ensuring the social order. The alignment of people with the explicit and implicit laws of behaviour according to the specified proportion is termed as social order. The role of social norms is immense in the context of social control and thus they can only be developed with the appropriate implementation of laws and regulations. The norms and statutes cannot be implemented without the laws since they govern the actual implementation of norms. Since common models of behaviour are highly significant in social control, the basic factors influencing the social control concepts must be addressed in a profound manner (Ross, 2009).

Norms

The norms and statutes have been officially portrayed through the different laws, which should place a binding emphasis on all the members of the society to follow these laws. Until and unless, the norms and statutes in the context of the different laws are not deemed as compulsory for the members of society, the level of crimes cannot be controlled and the behavioural patterns also cannot be analyzed in a comprehensive manner. The change in social norms has been known to take place quite slowly within the culturally centric societies and conservative societies.

Thus conservative societies are known to take a considerable amount of time in the development of norms and traditions. Liberal societies consisting of diverse ethnic groups are more likely to incorporate the norms within a short period of time. Authority constitutes a potent role in social control and thus cannot be ruled out in the case of social control. It signifies that a single person or the community has the authority to impose its will. Secondly a comprehensive plan regarding the demonstration of attitude must be present within social control. The study of behavioural patterns and attitudes is of paramount importance in the context of application pertaining to social control and thus the utilization of these elements must be given top priority within the social control concept (Vago, S., & Nelson, 2009).

The third characteristic in the case of social control is the communication system that successfully communicates with the community members in a persuasive manner. The needs of the community members must be addressed within the communication plan. Lastly, the groups or individuals that are prone to portraying the response towards communication systems must be conveyed through the communication channel. Although this process of establishing social control is quite complicated, it has been known to deliver the desired results (Body-Gendrot, 2011).

Social control is a highly significant phenomenon related to the controlling of human behaviour. It seeks to implement mechanisms through which the individual behaviour is controlled by the society. Many societies today are characterized by a rising level of criminal activities and thus require the use of social control theories for successfully minimizing the rising level of criminal activities. The control of the social institutions must be in the welfare and interest of the whole ...