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Social control is operative through the norms of society. The members of every society express their values through a system of social norms. These norms guide individual members into behavior they "ought to" enact. Without social norms there is no society.

A social norm defines the behavior that a number of people ordinarily expect or require of others and regularly enact themselves in response to particular situations (Dressler, 1973, p. 118). The behavior defined by social norms may be considered important or trivial, but it is always accompanied by an element of "ought to" or "must." 

Professor Grimm (knows that he "ought to" get a haircut regularly, but he would not be severely penalized if he did not. He is well aware that he "must" drive his care as prescribed by law and that he would be subject to an uncomfortable penalty if he failed to observe the law, for law requires certain behavior.

Social norms both prescribe and proscribe behavior. Prescribed behavior is expressed affirmatively: We must protect infants against physical and psychological hazards. Proscribed behavior is expressed in the negative: We must not steal.

Some norms apply to an entire society, others only to certain groups within the society. In the United States of America, every one "must" refrain from incest, but only certain citizens are required to register for the selective service (military).

Certain standards of conduct always apply to given people at a particular time and place. All Orthodox Jews are expected by their fellow religionists to refrain from labor of any kind from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Every sworn witness in a court proceeding is expected to testify truthfully.

The socially defined positions that people hold in a society are factors in determining whether and to what degree a given norm shall be applicable. Norms are selectively and differentially applied. In Larteh, a small town in Ghana, all male teachers wear long stockings, white shirts, and blue shorts. This is their official costume, selected for them by the government. It is their right to wear it by virtue of their important social position. Headmasters wear similar costumes, except that their shorts are white instead of blue (Brokensha, 1966, p.242).

Factors contributing to the selective and differential application of standards of behavior include, among many others, sex, age, occupation, marital status, and physical and mental capacity. The United States of America require young people below a specified age to attend school, exempting those who are older. We fully expect the businessperson to sell only items that will bring a reasonable financial profit, but we believe a doctor should sometimes give her/his time without fee when a patient needing her/his services cannot afford to pay for them. We approve certain courting (dating) behavior by the single person, but we do not approve exactly the same behavior by a married person. A civilian who is physically able is required by law when she/he comes upon one person assaulting another to do all she/he can to force the assailant to stop. A physically handicapped individual who could not reasonably be expected to do the same is not held to the rule. A legally sane defendant is held accountable for her/his crimes, but a legally sane person is not.

Social norms are also selectively and differentially applied according to subcultural groupings. In Mexican American families an adolescent boy is expected to act as guardian and protector of his younger and older sisters and of his younger brothers (Heller, 1966, p. 35). Adolescent boys in German American families are not expected to act this role.

What constitutes expected or required behavior varies with time in the same society. A century ago female deportment was much more rigidly controlled than now. Writing about life in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, Minnegerode (1924, p. 82) asserted:

In general, custom forbade a lady to make inquiries concerning a gentleman's health unless he were ill or very aged; all slang words were detestable from the lips of ladies, and they must never say snooze, pants, gent, seedy, rich for amusing, or "polking" for dancing the polka.

Obviously these rules of conduct do not hold today. A woman may feel free to inquire as to a man's health whether he be young or old, sick or well. And if she uses slang with reasonable discretion she will not be censured.

Although culture exerts a powerful influence upon the behavior of individual members of a society, people often have choices they may make. Much social behavior is not regulated by social norms. This is particularly the case in large, complex societies, where a wide variety of activities are open to the members. Although Professor Grimm is mildly irritated by some of the gentler compulsions of life in his community; he knows that in a great many matters he can behave as he chooses to without evoking criticism from those in a position to observe or learn of his behavior. He can live in an apartment or in a house. He can subscribe to one newspaper or another. He can espouse a religious faith or remain unaffiliated. If he wants a hobby, his associates will be equally receptive to his engaging in gardening, book collecting, fishing, or rock hunting.

It should be remembered, however, that although a great many kinds of behavior are tolerated in a particular time and place, the choice of response open to a participant in a cultural group is expected to be made only from among the possible responses that are socially acceptable. Dr. Grimm could have selected psychology as his field of study rather than sociology, but he could not with impunity have chosen the vocation of burglary.

Collective social norms make up the normative order, or normative system, of society. Every human society has a normative system, comprised of an interrelated complex of social norms, functioning to guide the behavior of its members.

Norms for sexual behavior are related to those concerning courtship, marriage, procreation, and family life. Standards of dress are related to standards for gender roles, as well as to standards applying to, among a great many other things, work, recreation, marriage, and graduation from college. Norms of society are organized into a system that despite some seeming or actual contradictions is harmonious for the most part and consistent with a society's conception of morality, practically, and other desired ends.

The normative system of each human society has some similarity to the system of all other human societies. For example, all societies have some regulations for contracting the relationship we call marriage. The rules may differ among societies, but all have rules on the subject.

And although similarities exist, there are also differences in normative systems, each containing distinctive and perhaps unique features. Differences in the normative systems of two societies (and the importance of understanding what is normative in a given society) are vividly portrayed by Hersh (1970, pp. 53-84). Military personnel assigned to pacification projects in Vietnam, he says, often complained that the Vietnamese did not care about their own children.

They would say that the mothers tried to leave them behind when they were being evacuated. "Saw it with my own eyes," on GI said. "A woman hopped up on the chopper after setting her baby down on the ground. When I picked it up and handed it to her, she shouted and pointed to the ground and would not accept the baby from me." The GI did not know that a peasant woman in Quang Ngai believes it is unlucky to carry a baby across a threshold, and so she sits the baby down, steps across, and then reaches back and picks it up--in a single swift movement.

It should be understood that the normative system of society, highly influential as it is in regulating behavior, does not operate as certainly and invariably as does a "law" of physical of physical science (MacIver & Page, 1949). Norms of behavior can be disobeyed, and they are susceptible to change. They are not as inexorable as natural "laws." 

Whatever the degree of resistance they may be to social codes, they carry some sense of obligation where behavior is concerned. They may run counter to our inclinations in certain respects, but we usually recognize that other people in our society consider us obligated to conform to what is deemed in the common interest. 

Individuals adhere  to the behavior codes of society through indoctrination, habituation, desire for groiup identification, and recognition of the utility of the codes.

Codes are indoctrinated when ways of thinking, believing, and behaving are inculcated in individuals early in life during the process of socialization. Children are taught by parents and others to accept the customs and codes of their society as right. They grow up believing in them; they internalize them.

For untold generations, the Navajo farmer lived in a domed structure called a hogan, made of wood and plastered with mud. He constructed the hogan for himself and his family, and he taught his children to do the same when they left the family home. Members of the tribe who have not deserted their traditional culture continue to live in hogans. They do not question why. They were indoctrinated into the custom; they accept it.

Social codes are also adhered to through habituation. Whereas indoctrination is a conscious process, the result of direct communication and instruction, habituation occurs when individuals unconsciously conform to the rules of behavior in their society.

If you life in the United States of America, you probably unconsciously accept the idea that you should be governed by elected representatives who will express your will in their votes and acts. Very likely, you do to want to be ruled by a dictator. You are habituated to a democratic form of government.

Contemporary city dwellers in Japan follow a custom called ohirome ("advertisement") when they move into a neighborhood. The entire household, or just the wife, goes from house to house, leaving a name-card and a small gift--perhaps a towel, a bar of soap, or a few boxes of matches. The newcomer introduces himself, tells where he lives, says he may have to call upon his neighbor in the future for assistance in some matter, and asks his kind indulgence. Now he is a member of the group of neighbors (Dore, 1958, p. 256). He takes for granted that this is the proper way to become a neighbor. He is habituated to the custom. He would probably look with some disfavor on another newcomer in the neighborhood who did not follow the custom.

A third reason why we conform to the normative system of society is that we seek group identification. By behaving as those around us do, we express the idea that we belong to and feel ourselves part of the group. Do you send Christmas cards to your friends? If so, you thereby identify yourself with them and with all persons who follow the same custom. Perhaps you raise the flag outside your home on the Fourth of July. This also is a gesture of identification, in this case with others who consider themselves loyal to the United States.

A fourth reason we follow customary ways is that we comprehend their utility. You are driving along a one-way, two-lane road. It begins to narrow to one lane. You slow down in order to permit the car to your right to get ahead of you. Why? Because you realize that this is a useful custom, beneficial to all concerned. If no one yielded the right of way there would soon be a traffic jam that would affect all motorists at that point.

We are distinguishing, then, between behavior based solely on the desire to avoid social sanctions and behavior we want to adopt for other or additional reasons.