ABSTRACT
If humans are to live together in relative peace and harmony, antisocial behavior must be kept to a minimum. Mechanisms that have been devised to accomplish this have been collectively called social control. Social control entails any action on the part of others that facilitates conformity on the part of those toward whom the action is directed. The fi rst agents of social control we meet are our parents, on whose shoulders control theorists place the primary burden of producing good citizens. It is they who must teach their offspring the accepted rules of proper conduct, which is the rational component of our consciences. When we have internalized rules of conduct, we feel guilty, anxious, and ashamed when we misbehave, and happy and self-righteous when we behave well. Those less than adequately socialized feel no such emotions, and thus grant themselves permission to do more or less as they please-to do what comes naturally. Gwynn Nettler put it most colorfully when he wrote: “If we grow up ‘naturally,’ without cultivation, like weeds, we grow up like weeds-rank” (1984:313).
