Social control is defined as any effort to ensure conformity to laws, rules, or norms. It is the flip side of deviant behavior. One often causes the other.

Society is best conceived as the product of interactions between component individuals which are controlled by a body of traditions and norms that arise in the process of interaction. Social control is "the central fact and the central problem of society" - Park

Sociology Books 2008	Books on Social Control	Sociologyindex
Society has several mechanisms for building us and our personality. The first mechanism is socialization. Through socialization we learn who we are and what is expected of us and others in our culture. All of our identities come from society. Socialization begins in childhood and continues throughout our lives as we encounter and move through different institutions. By defining what behavior is good, society also defines what is deviant. A second mechanism society has for building us is social control, which is used to re-build deviants or at least keep them from interfering with the normal operation of society. Social control ranges from gossip and ridicule to imprisonment and execution.Society also has mechanisms for distributing valued resources. Through stratification society categorizes people and distributes valued resources to them based on the categories. Among the most important categories are class, race and gender. Our class, race and gender affect how we are socialized, what type of social control we face, what opportunities we receive and what obstacles weface. Finally, society provides us with ideologies, justifications for our systems of socialization, social control and stratification, and other social arrangements. When people ask questions about why things are the way they are, ideologies provide answers. Sociologists use the term sociological imagination to describe the ability to see the impact of these processes on our private lives, i.e., that we are a consequence of society. People are also the cause of society, i.e., we build it. Because of the continuous operation ofthe four mechanisms society uses to produce us, it is difficult for a single person to make significant societal changes. However, many important changes happen because of social movements, which consist of many people organized to promote social change. Although society has many mechanisms for creating us, the operation of these mechanisms alldepend upon our everyday interactions. In other words, we participate in socializing others, carrying out social control, reproducing the stratification system, and promoting ideologies. This is another way that we build society. Sociologists use the term the social construction of reality to describe how people build the social world, especially as it is done through our everyday interactions. - David Schweingruber - (Syllabus - Introduction to Sociology)

Social control is defined as any effort to ensure conformity to laws, rules, or norms. It is the flip side of deviant behavior. One often causes the other. When people find behaviors or attributes offensive, they create laws, rules, or norms that prohibit those deviances. Then they will attempt to ensure conformity by enforcing sanctions.

Although it is created to deter deviant behavior, social control may also cause deviant behavior. Gary Marx's article, "Ironies of Social Control," describes three ways in which social control can result in deviant behavior. Note the three concepts in Marx's title: escalation, nonenforcement, and covert facilitation.

Gary T. Marx, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, M.I.T.
Social Control and Police - Technologies of social control - web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/garyhome.html#socialcontrol

Social control is arguably the oldest concept in sociology. Ever since Edward A. Ross’s treatise of the subject in the late nineteenth century, social control has remained alive in sociology and criminology, although with different meanings.’ At first, social control referred to a society’s capacity to regulate itself. Then it was employed to indicate the more repressive and coercive forms of top-down control in capitalist regimes. From the 1950s onwards, social control has been conceived more narrowly in relationship to deviance and/or crime: social control refers to those mechanisms that are put into operation in response to crime, deviant behavior, or other deviations from socially prescribed norms. Within the last perspective, recent years have seen new forms of social control, generally thought of as progressive and rational alternatives to oppressive and coercive means, are added to the already existing systems of punishment, criminal justice and social control.

Deflem, Mathieu. 1992. “The Invisibilities of Social Control: Uncovering Gary Marx’s Discovery of Undercover.” Crime, Law and Social Change 18(1/2):177-192. - mathieudeflem.net

Park's view is that society is best conceived as the product of interactions between component individuals which are controlled by a body of traditions and norms that arise in the process of interaction. Social control is "the central fact and the central problem of society." www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/Park/PARKW2.HTML

What are deviant behavior and social control? In chapter 1 of Deviant Behavior Erich Goode begins by debunking what he considers false conceptions of deviance. His "Five Misleading Definitions of Deviance" correspond to the misconceptions of many laypersons and several scholars as well. - extend.indiana.edu/courses/soc/socs320b/lesson1/disc1a.htm