Social Control, Part III: Informal and Formal Social Control

Summary

This video explores the concepts of informal and formal social control. Informal social control involves societal pressures like peer influence, community expectations, and shame, which encourage conformity. Formal social control, as discussed through Michel Foucault’s theories, examines how punishment has evolved from public physical harm to the internalization of societal norms, often via systems like prisons. The video also delves into the medicalization of deviance, where behaviors once considered deviant are re-framed as medical issues, highlighting both the positive and negative impacts of this shift. Finally, it covers state-determined formal control through laws, enforcement, and punishment mechanisms.

Takeaways

• 😀 Informal social control refers to the influence of individuals and groups in shaping behavior through peer pressure, social exclusion, ridicule, and shame.
• 😀 Examples of informal social control include bystander intervention, citizen patrols, and social disapproval when someone breaks societal norms.
• 😀 Informal sanctions, such as criticism or exclusion, can vary significantly across different groups and societies.
• 😀 Michel Foucault argued that in the 18th century, social control shifted from physical punishment to discipline that targets the mind, promoting conformity even without direct surveillance.
• 😀 Foucault’s theory suggests that the shift from public executions to prisons represents a change from punishing the body to controlling the soul, or mind, of individuals.
• 😀 Medicalization refers to the process of treating non-medical behaviors (e.g., homosexuality, addiction) as medical problems, leading to a redefinition of deviance.
• 😀 Medicalization often reduces the stigma of deviance but can shift responsibility from societal issues (like inequality) to individual biology.
• 😀 Moral entrepreneurs play a key role in medicalizing behaviors, advocating for the re-framing of deviant actions into medical conditions.
• 😀 Medicalization can have both positive and negative consequences—while it can reduce stigma, it also individualizes complex social issues, like depression, without addressing the root causes.
• 😀 Formal social control is enforced by governments or authorities through laws, regulations, and punishments like fines, imprisonment, or the death penalty, and is often backed by public consent.
• 😀 The state's social control mechanisms, such as laws and punishments, aim to regulate behavior through structured legal systems, ensuring society adheres to agreed norms and values.

Q & A

What is informal social control?

Informal social control refers to the reactions of individuals and groups that encourage conformity to social norms and laws. This includes behaviors such as peer pressure, community pressure, bystander intervention, and collective responses like citizen patrols.

How does informal social control differ from formal social control?

Informal social control is exercised by society without explicitly stating rules, often through peer pressure or social cues like shame and ridicule. In contrast, formal social control is enacted by the government and institutions using laws, fines, and imprisonment.

Can you provide an example of informal social control?

An example of informal social control is seen in the scene from Pink Floyd's 'The Wall', where a student is ridiculed by a teacher for writing poetry in a mathematics class. This type of sanction involves social disapproval.

What role does Michel Foucault play in understanding formal social control?

Michel Foucault explored the evolution of social control, arguing that in the 18th century, punishment shifted from public, bodily punishment to more subtle forms of discipline that involve controlling the mind, such as through the prison system and socialization.

What does Foucault mean by 'discipline' in the context of social control?

Foucault defines discipline as a form of power that involves individuals internalizing norms and behaving in socially acceptable ways, even without direct surveillance or punishment. This shift from punishing the body to shaping the soul exemplifies the modern form of social control.

How does the medicalization of deviance serve as a form of formal social control?

Medicalization involves framing deviant behaviors as medical problems, often by labeling them as disorders or illnesses. This process shifts the responsibility for deviance from individual moral failure to a medical condition, leading to treatments such as medication or therapy.

What are moral entrepreneurs and what role do they play in medicalization?

Moral entrepreneurs are individuals or groups that advocate for the redefinition of certain behaviors as medical issues. They push society to categorize these behaviors as disorders, using medical language to alter how these behaviors are viewed and treated.

Can you give an example of how a behavior was de-medicalized?

An example of de-medicalization is homosexuality, which was once classified as a mental disorder but was removed from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-3) in 1973. This change reflected a shift in societal views.

What are some potential negative consequences of medicalizing deviance?

One negative consequence is that medicalization can reduce individual responsibility by attributing deviant behavior to physiological causes rather than social or environmental factors. This can also lead to more invasive treatments like medication or surgery, which may not address the root causes of the behavior.

What is the relationship between formal social control and state laws?

Formal social control is enforced by the state through legal frameworks. Laws are created and enforced by government institutions, and sanctions such as fines, imprisonment, or even the death penalty are used to maintain order and encourage obedience to the law.