social control

noun

1. Sociology. the enforcement of conformity by society upon its members, either by law or by social pressure.
2. the influence of any element in social life working to maintain the pattern of such life.

Example Sentences

This remarkably bipartisan consensus for a war economy shouldn’t just be considered another “issue,” but an approach to governance that relies on force and violence, rather than consent, to establish social control.

From Salon

The discovery of such social control of queen specialization may reshape our understanding of the functioning of insect societies and their division of labor.

From Science Daily

The amount of social control that people are attempting to exert over women's bodies is generally escalating.

From Salon

Hedrick and Jerome, as homosexuals determined to flourish in a narrowly heteronormative culture, knew the myriad social controls and cruelties, casual and otherwise, that strangle daily life.

From Los Angeles Times

“As such, despite lacking the strong racial connotations of lynching in the United States, mob violence in Mexico, as in the United States, was a tool of social control.”

From New York Times