ABSTRACT
The following chapters will be concerned with certain forms of the social regulation of behaviour, i.e. with the ‘rules of conduct’ which guide and constrain individuals in their relations with other members of society. The term ‘social control’ may be regarded as referring to the aggregate of values and norms by means of which tensions and conflicts between individuals and groups are resolved or mitigated in order to maintain the solidarity of some more inclusive group, and also to the arrangements through which these values and norms are communicated and instilled.1 We may, therefore, distinguish between the types of social control, and the agencies and means which are the vehicles of social control. The principal types of control are those which we discuss below, custom and opinion, law, religion, morals and education (knowledge, science). The educational system also figures as an agency of social control, along with the political system, churches and other religious bodies, the family (socialization) and many other specialized organizations. Every social group, indeed, can be studied from the standpoint of the social control which it exercises over its members.2
