Table of Contents
Definition of Social Control
(noun) A way to regulate, enforce, and encourage conformity to norms both formally and informally, particularly by ones’ peers.
Social Control Pronunciation
Syllabification: so·cial con·trol
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /sOH-shuhl kuhn-trOHl/
- British English – /sOH-shuhl kuhn-trOHl/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈsoʊʃəl kənˈtroʊl/
- British English – /ˈsəʊʃəl kənˈtrəʊl/
Usage Note
- Plural: social controls
Related Videos
Additional Information
- Word origin of “social” and “control” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Blomberg, Thomas G., and Stanley Cohen, eds. 2003. Punishment and Social Control. 2nd ed. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
- Booth, Jeb A., Amy Farrell, and Sean P. Varano. 2008. “Social Control, Serious Delinquency, and Risky Behavior.” Crime and Delinquency 54(3):423–56. doi:10.1177/0011128707306121.
- Brown, Alison P. 2004. “Anti-social Behaviour, Crime Control and Social Control.” Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 43(2):203–11. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2311.2004.00321.x.
- Demers, David, and K. Viswanath. 1999. Mass Media, Social Control, and Social Change: A Macrosocial Perspective. Ames, IO: Iowa State University Press.
- Foucault, Michel. [1977] 2012. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage.
- Hirschi, Travis. 1969. Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Innes, Martin. 2003. Understanding Social Control: Deviance, Crime and Social Order. Buckingham: Open University Press.
- Little, Margaret. 1998. “No Car, No Radio, No Liquor Permit”: The Moral Regulation of Single Mothers in Ontario, 1920–1997. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
- Maguire, M., R. Morgan, and R. Reiner, eds. 2012. The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Matza, David. 1964. Delinquency and Drift. New York: John Wiley.
- Parsons, Talcott. 1937. The Structure of Social Action. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Pike, Kenneth L. 1986. “Mixtec Social “Credit Rating”—The Particular versus the Universal in One Emic World View.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 83(9):3047–49. doi:10.1073/pnas.83.9.3047.
- Weitzer, Ronald. 2002. Deviance and Social Control: A Reader. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Related Terms
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Cite the Definition of Social Control
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “social control.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved December 2, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/social-control/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
social control. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/social-control/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “social control.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/social-control/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“social control.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 2 Dec. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/social-control/>.