Discuss How the Family, Education, Religion, Media, Political and Legal Systems Are Used to Maintain Social Control”

Thus, socialization is perhaps a powerful way by which they get individuals to behave. If we don’t have effective sanctions for such deviance, social control would not take place. The secondary agent of social control is simply a process whereby basic childhood behaviours are reinforced by institutions such as the school, the mass media and the church. Each of these has a physiological impact on the individual. Thus society finds ways to punish people and make them conform to its expectations. For instance, the education system operates at two levels. The first is the formal curriculum which is a summation of all the learning experiences offered in schools and that you are given qualifications based on the curriculum. Then there is the hidden curriculum which is all the things you learn by the way. It is where rules like wearing a uniform, the colour of your shoes, punctuality and regularity are to be adhered to. This is a form of informal control, if not followed there are a range of punishments such as detention, lines, suspension and perhaps the most powerful of them all, recommendations for students who go against the school rules. With regards to religion, they maintain control by putting fear into people and using ideology as they would find a way to control your mind. Again, if one were to act contrary to this there is a fear of expulsion, ostracism and disfranchisement. However, since the last century, the power of