How does society control people's behaviour?
Social control, including formal and informal agencies of social control, sanctions, and the role of agencies such as the family, education, the police and the courts.
A focused answer to the AQA GCSE Sociology crime topic, covering social control through formal and informal agencies, positive and negative sanctions, and the role of agencies such as the family, police and courts.
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What this dot point is asking
AQA wants you to explain how society controls behaviour through formal and informal agencies of social control, the sanctions they use, and how specific agencies (the family, education, the police and the courts) work to keep order. You should be able to classify any agency or sanction as formal or informal and as positive or negative.
What is social control?
Social control is not only about punishment. Most of the time it works quietly through socialisation: people internalise the norms of their society during childhood and come to want to follow them, so explicit sanctions are rarely needed. When internal control breaks down, external control by agencies steps in. Sociologists therefore see social control as a continuum, from the invisible self-control we learn through socialisation to the visible force of the courts and prisons.
Informal and formal agencies
The named agencies in the specification work in different ways. The family carries out primary socialisation and uses informal sanctions to teach children right from wrong. Education reinforces norms such as punctuality and respect for authority, partly through the hidden curriculum. The police detect crime and enforce the law, and the courts decide guilt and impose formal sanctions, backed ultimately by prisons. Informal and formal control reinforce one another: most people obey the law not because they fear the courts but because the family, school and peer group have already taught them to.
Sanctions
Sanctions are the rewards and punishments used to control behaviour, and they can be sorted along two dimensions, formal versus informal and positive versus negative:
- Positive sanctions reward conformity, for example praise, a prize, a promotion (informal and formal rewards).
- Negative sanctions punish deviance, for example a telling off, a fine or a prison sentence.
A strong answer recognises that both formal and informal agencies use positive and negative sanctions. The family praises (positive informal) and tells off (negative informal); the state gives honours or rewards (positive formal) and imposes fines or prison (negative formal). Classifying examples correctly on both dimensions is a reliable way to show understanding.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 20194 marksIdentify and explain one informal agency of social control.Show worked answer →
A four-mark Paper 2 item: name an informal agency and explain how it controls behaviour using sociological terms.
One informal agency is the family. Parents teach children right from wrong and use informal sanctions such as praise for good behaviour and telling off or removing privileges for bad behaviour.
Develop the point: through this everyday control, children learn to follow norms without any law being involved, so the family shapes behaviour informally rather than through official rules. Markers reward a named informal agency, an explanation of how it works, and examples of informal positive and negative sanctions.
AQA 20224 marksIdentify and explain one way in which formal agencies of social control differ from informal agencies.Show worked answer →
A four-mark contrast item. State the difference and develop it with examples.
One difference is that formal agencies enforce written laws using official sanctions, while informal agencies enforce unwritten norms using everyday approval and disapproval. For example, the courts (formal) can impose a fine or prison sentence, whereas the peer group (informal) uses ridicule or exclusion.
Develop the point: formal control is carried out by official bodies such as the police, courts and prisons created specifically to maintain order, while informal control is woven into everyday life through the family, peers, media and education. Markers reward a clear difference, named agencies on each side and examples of the sanctions used.
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Sources & how we know this
- AQA GCSE Sociology (8192) specification — AQA (2017)