Negative social control

There is always an element of influence and control when people come together. This type of “social control” gets us to go to doctor’s appointments on time, not jaywalk, say hello politely to our neighbours and gets children to listen to their parents. Social control develops a shared understanding of how to behave and act in relation to others.

Social control has the strongest effect when the relationship is between people who are important to each other, and is often an expression of love and care. Parents, for example, set boundaries for their children because they love them. Family and religious communities can also exercise social control. The signals they give may be that the young must respect their elders, that they must attend religious gatherings, that they must not swear or drink alcohol.

Negative social controll

Occasionally the social control may be so strict that it has a negative effect. There is a thin line between positive and negative social control. When the control leads to systematic forms of supervision, threats and coercion to force individuals to live in compliance with family or group norms, it is called “negative social control”.

For example, parental control of children and husbands’ control of their wives may be so forceful that it restricts the freedom of children and women. Religious communities can also control their members in an unacceptable way. Religion can be used to instil fear. At times negative social control can violate human rights and national law.

Many people who are subjected to negative social control live with mental or physical violence. Studies show that youths who are subjected to negative social control have more mental disorders and lower self-confidence than others. Many experience problems in school.

Because there is a thin line between positive and negative social control, and because the latter can have dire consequences, it is important to improve our knowledge and to reflect. Then it will be easier to discover and prevent negative social control.

Human rights

A number of agreements on human rights ban negative social control. The European Convention on Human Rights, the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Women’s Convention, for example, prohibit discrimination, torture and debasing behaviour, and also touch on many other aspects.

In the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child these articles are relevant:

• “States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child” (Article 19).
• “No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (Article 37).

(English translation by John Anthony)