Quick questions on Social Control and Conformity - TCE Sociology (Tasmania) - Level 3

Informal social control is the regulation of behaviour through unofficial social pressure. A disapproving look, gossip, teasing, exclusion from a friendship group or praise from a parent are all informal sanctions. They are powerful precisely because humans crave acceptance. The peer group, the family, the workplace and the media all exert this kind of pressure every day, rewarding conformity and shaming deviance without any official rules being written down.

Formal social control operates through explicit written rules enforced by official agencies. In Australia these include the law, the police, the courts and the prison and corrections system, as well as school rules and workplace codes of conduct. Formal control is used when informal control fails, and its sanctions are codified, from on the spot fines to imprisonment. Max Weber linked the rise of formal control to the growth of rational bureaucracy in modern states, where impersonal rules replace personal custom.

Functionalists see social control as necessary and broadly beneficial. Durkheim argued that punishing wrongdoers reaffirms shared values and strengthens social solidarity: when a court convicts an offender, the public outrage reminds everyone of the moral boundary. From this view, control benefits society as a whole by maintaining order and integrating individuals.