Social Problems and Social Control
What this domain tests
The exam tests the definition of a social problem, the distinction between personal troubles and public issues, and the classification of social control into formal, informal, internal and external mechanisms.
Social problems
- A social problem is a condition that affects a significant number of people, is defined as undesirable by influential groups, and is seen as requiring collective action. It has objective conditions and a subjective definition.
- Mills distinguished personal troubles from public issues: one person's unemployment is a trouble; mass unemployment is an issue.
- Indian examples include poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, gender inequality, dowry, child labour, caste discrimination, communalism, corruption, drug abuse and domestic violence.
Social control
- Social control is the mechanism by which society enforces norms and discourages deviance.
- Formal control is written and specialised: law, police, courts, constitution and prison.
- Informal control is unwritten and everyday: family, religion, custom, public opinion, gossip, ridicule, praise and ostracism.
- Internal control works through conscience and internalised norms; external control works through sanctions.
- Deviance is violation of norms; crime is deviance against the law. Durkheim argued that deviance is normal and can clarify norms; Merton argued that strain between goals and means produces deviance; anomie means normlessness.
Worked example
Ragging in a college. The anti-ragging committee, university regulations and police are formal controls; seniors' disapproval, peer opinion and family shame are informal. If students refrain because they believe ragging is wrong, that is internal control. Reasoning: classify by written or unwritten, and by internal or external.
Traps
- A personal trouble is not automatically a social problem.
- Social control is not only punishment; it includes socialization and rewards.
- Deviance is not identical with crime.
- Do not list problems without showing social causes and consequences.
- Social control can be oppressive; not all conformity is good.