Informal sanctions

(noun)

These are the reactions of individuals and groups that bring about conformity to norms and laws. These can include peer and community pressure, bystander intervention in a crime, and collective responses such as citizen patrol groups.

Related Terms

Examples of Informal sanctions in the following topics:

  • Sanctions

    • Sanctions are mechanisms of social control.
    • Informal sanctions may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism, and disapproval.
    • In extreme cases, sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion.
    • Informal sanctions can check deviant behavior of individuals or groups, either through internalization, or through disincentivizing the deviant behavior.
    • Informal controls are varied and differ from individual to individual, group to group, and society to society.

  • Informal Social Control

    • Informal control typically involves an individual internalizing certain norms and values.
    • Informal sanctions may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism, and disapproval, which can cause an individual to conform to the social norms of the society.
    • In extreme cases, sanctions may include social discrimination, exclusion, and violence.
    • Informal social control has the potential to have a greater impact on an individual than formal control.
    • Informal sanctions check 'deviant' behavior.

  • Informal Means of Control

    • Informal controls are varied and differ from individual to individual, group to group, and society to society.
    • Informal sanctions may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism, and disapproval.
    • In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion.
    • Informal controls differ from individual to individual, group to group, and society to society.
    • In a criminal gang, a stronger sanction applies in the case of someone threatening to inform to the police.

  • Social Control

    • In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion.
    • In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion.
    • Informal sanctions can have a powerful effect; individuals internalize the norm, which becomes an aspect of personality.
    • Social control may also be enforced using formal sanctions.
    • Formal sanctions may be used in a large group in which an individual can choose to ignore the sanctions of other individuals.

  • Norms and Sanctions

    • Norms are social rules of behavior, and a sanction is a form of punishment against violation of different norms.
    • The violation of social norms, or deviance, results in social sanction.
    • Different degrees of violation result in different degrees of sanction.
    • There are three main forms of social sanction for deviance: 1) legal sanction, 2) stigmatization, and 3) preference for one behavior over another.
    • Informal deviance, or violation of unwritten, social rules of behavior, results in social sanction, or stigma.

  • Homophobia

    • Informal discrimination is not necessarily sanctioned by the state, but involves social pressures against LGBTQ individuals, behaviors, and identities.

  • Folkways and Mores

    • The local residents may find the urban newcomers strange or a little cold if they do not offer greetings, but they will probably not sanction them formally or informally.
    • Likewise, in the city, residents may think newcomers from the country a bit odd if they give unsolicited greetings, but those greetings will probably not draw sanctions.
    • Informal norms can be divided into two distinct groups: folkways and mores.
    • Mores (pronounced more-rays) are also informal rules that are not written, but, when violated, result in severe punishments and social sanction upon the individuals, such as social and religious exclusions,.
    • Their violation does not invite any punishment or sanctions, but may come with reprimands or warnings.

  • Informal economy

    • Informal economic activity is a dynamic process which includes many aspects of economic and social theory including exchange, regulation, and enforcement.

  • Informal Economy

    • Informal economies are frequently less institutionalized and include all economic practices that are not included in the calculation of GNP.
    • Informal economies therefore include such disparate practices as the drug trade and babysitting—anything that isn't reported to the government or factored into the nation's GNP .

  • Norms

    • Explicit norms are often enforced by formal sanctions.
    • In this case, the formal sanction may be a fine or jail time.
    • Implicit norms are usually enforced by informal sanctions.
    • In this case, informal sanctions might include dirty looks or avoidance.
    • Norms may be enforced through informal sanctions, such as derision, or formal sanctions, such as arrest.