In your opinion, which social control agents are influential in our society and why?

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Answer:

There are several agencies of social control. Thai means social control is exercised through various agencies. The important agencies of social control are stated below:

1. Family:

Family is an important agency of social control. It is the first place where an individual is socialized. He learns various methods of living, behavior patterns, convention etc. from the family. He is taught to behave and respect social laws and obey social controls. He learns customs, folkways, traditions and modes from the family. Family influenced the individual directly through suggestion, persuasion, praise, blame, ridicule, criticism etc. Through these, mechanism family forces the individual to conform the custom, folkways and modes of the group.

2. Neighborhood:

Neighborhood is a simple and specific part of a community. It has a feeling or sentiment of local unit. There may be more than one neighborhood in a community. The neighborhood is the first community with which the individual comes into contact with. It exists, a deep influence on its members as an agency of social control. The local neighborhood reinforces or strengthens the individual family as an agency of social control. It comes only after the family in social importance. The elder members of the neighborhood or locality, who are very intimate to one another, keep group modes alive and enforce them in the locality. The local neighborhood like the family, exercises direct control over the behavior of the individuals through direct suggestions, persuasion, praise, blame, ridicule, criticism etc.

3. Church:

Church is regarded as an institutionalized expression of religion. It serves as an agency of social control. In the past church was a powerful agency of social control for quite some time. The church and the priests were held in high esteem. The authority of the church was recognized and accepted by the people. As a result, no body could disobey its order. The church had power to dethrone kings who did not accept its authority during this period.

4. Religion:

Religion serves as an important agency of social control. It is religion, which supports the folkways and modes of a society by playing super natural sanctions behind them. It adopts negative as well as positive means to regulate the behavior of the individuals in society.

5. The School:

The school is a very powerful agency: of social control. It exercises social control through education. The child learns many things from the school, which he cannot learn from other sources. The child is taught to obey the discipline, which a student learns at school lasts with him throughout his life. In the college, also the students are required to obey social controls. The school and college or educational institutions are next to family as agencies of social control. It is the class room the peer group and the leaders who exercise influence on the child for his future role in society. Education in modern times is a very powerful means of social control. It is education, which makes all efforts to discipline the mind of the student in the school so that he can realize the importance of social control.

6. Law:

Law is a powerful method of control. The state runs its administration through the government. It enforces law within its territory with the help of the police, the army, the prison and the court; it enacts laws to regulate the lives of the people. The deviants or the violators of social rules are punished as per law; the state carries out certain function by means of law. E.A. Ross says that ‘law is the most specialized and highly furnished engine of social control employed by society. It is law, which prevents the people from indulging in antisocial activities. The lawbreakers are punished by the law of the state. It helps in governing our social conduct and behaviors. Laws are essential in strengthening social control violation of law considered a punishable offence. In short, law is an important formal means of Control to regulate the individual behavior in society.

7. Administration:

Administration is very powerful and the most effective instrument of social control. It forces the individual to obey social control. The administrations punish the violators with the help of the police, the army etc.

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