social control
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Encyclopedic overview
Signs warning of prohibited activities; an example of social control
Social control is the regulations, sanctions, mechanisms, and systems that restrict the behaviour of individuals in accordance with social norms and orders. Through both informal and formal means, individuals and groups exercise social control both internally and externally. As an area of social science, social control is studied by researchers of various fields, including anthropology, criminology, law, political science, and sociology.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “social control” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.