METHODS OF SOCIAL CONTROL THROUGH LAW

The primary function of law is to regulate human conduct. Law seeks to control not only human
beings but also human institutions some of which are direct creatures of the law itself. Social control is a
means to an end, the end being social justice. Law is not the only means of ensuring social control, other
instruments of social control include public opinion, education, custom and religion etc. The law however
remains the most formal and deliberate means of social control. Farrar and Dugdale set out seven methods
or techniques of social control and they include:

1. The Penal Technique: This technique is achieved by the use of criminal law. It involves the use
of rules prohibiting certain deviant behaviors, providing punishments for non-compliance and the
maintenance of the police force for crime detection, prosecution and a system of courts to
adjudicate on questions of criminal liability. Other parts of the technique include the maintenance
of prisons, custody centers and other such places. All these are part of the criminal justice system,
which was specifically created for the purpose of applying the penal technique. The existence of
the technique incurs to the benefit of the society in several ways: It deter persons from
committing crimes and rids the society of deviants with criminal behavior who are kept away in
police cells and prisons. The penal technique achieves social control b spelling out the conducts
which are prohibited, the penalties for breach, the procedure for determining the guilt of those
who violate the rules and the appropriate punishment.
There are several alternatives to the penal technique. The alternative to the penal technique will
be as follows:
i. Non Intervention: it is not possible for society to criminalise or penalize all socially
reprehensible conduct. In some areas of behaviour, it may be thought that the
application of the penal technique is not morally justified or practicable. For example
while rape and sexual assault are not tolerated in most societies, homosexuality,
lesbianism or prostitution may be viewed as offences depending on the philosophy
underlying each society’s criminal law. Also, on the issue of non intervention, there are
instances where the Police may encourage parties to resort to a private arranging
method where there are less serious criminal offences and where the parties belong to
some organisation which has its own methods of resolving disputes.
ii. Warning or Caution: in some cases the offender is warned by the court for example child
offenders or petty offenders. For example, a judge may simply warn a person who
makes noise in court instead of committing the person for the offence of contempt of
court.
iii. Reciprocity and Self Help: In those days when there was no formal legal system, the
victims of deviant behavior might be left alone to seek vengeance if he wished. The
consequence might be anarchy and family feud or violence.
iv. Compounding: a victim of a crime may agree not to press criminal charges against a
wrong doer upon the satisfaction of certain conditions such as agreed payment or other
remedies.
2. The Grievance Remedial Technique: This Technique which is applicable in areas of civil law
entails defining remedial grievance, specifies remedies and providing for enforcement of
remedial awards. It involves a statement of substantive legal rules, principles and standards
which creates rights, duties and remedies to back up those rights. It involves establishing civil
courts to process claims and establish remedies. The technique is most visible in the area of the
law of tort, contract, commercial law etc.
 The remedies available to a party under this technique depend on the nature of the right breached
and the circumstances of the case. Such remedies may include, damages, specific performance,
injunction etc. read up the alternatives to this technique.
3. The Private Arranging Technique: by this technique, the law provides a framework of rules
which would determine the validity or legal status of arrangements or agreements between
persons or among persons. Such arrangements include for example entering into marriage or
writing a will. The arrangements or agreements are left to individual discretion or initiative but
the law determines whether they are valid. In respect of marriage, an individual is left with the
choice of whether to enter into marriage or not, where the individual decides to marry, he must do
so within the framework prescribed by law. He may marry under the Marriage Act, under
customary law or under the rules of Islam. Whichever system of law he chooses, he must comply
with the rules under that system or his marriage will be invalid. With respect to making of Wills,
an individual is at liberty to write a Will or not, where he decides to write the Will, he must
comply with requirements laid down by law in order for the Will to be valid.
4. Constitutive Technique: The method closely resembles the private-arranging technique. Under
this technique, the law recognizes the formation of legal personalities: a group of people as
constituting a legal person separate and district from its constituent members called
“corporation”. This is advantageous in a number of ways. The corporation has perpetual
succession, and it enables ownership to be separated from management.
Further, members can escape bankruptcy on the corporation failing. It thus encourages forms of
business enterprise. The most common forms of business enterprise today are the limited liability
companies constituted by the Companies and Allied Matters Act. Governments also set up
some corporation by law such as the Nigeria electric Power Authority, Nigeria Ports Authority
and so on. These laws and complex system of case-law regulate and govern the constituted
bodies.
5. Administrative-Regulatory Technique
This system exists to regulate wholesome activities rather than prohibit anti-social behavior
which the penal technique tasks care of. Its aim is not to punish offenders but to regulate trade,
services and distribution of scarce resources. It regulates the activities of private businesses in
order to prevent exploitation of citizens.
Under this technique, officials adopt regulatory standards, communicate these standards to those
subjects to them and take steps to ensure compliance. The steps may include a system of licenses,
disqualifications or suspensions, and the bringing of administrative proceedings, litigation or
criminal prosecution as a last resort. Regulatory bodies include the the National Agency for
Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), National
Universities Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Standard
Organization of Nigeria (SON).
This technique is different from the grievance remedial in three basic ways. First, it operates
preventively, not curatively. Secondly, its enforcement is by government (not the court) on the
initiative of the aggrieved. Thirdly, it need not identify a victim, as the rules are applied without
waiting for a complaint.
6. Fiscal Technique
Government needs money to finance its spending to enable it raise the money, it adopts a
technique called the “fiscal technique” which, especially, means the use of law to impose a
variety of taxes and levies to control the behaviour of citizens. The government imposes higher
tax rates on goods that it wants to discourage. Such taxes are personal income tax, and company
tax, these are direct and fall on all natural and legal persons respectively.
Some are indirect and fall on property while some are based on consumption of goods and
services like the Value Added Tax and import duties. Examples of laws under this technique
include the Personal Income Tax Act and the Custom and Excise Management Act. The bodies
 set up by law to enforce the tax laws include the Customs service, the income Tax Board and the
Federal Inland Revenue Service.
7. The Conferral of Social Benefit Technique: By this technique, the government through law
strives to provide basic amenities (such as schools, hospitals, roads etc) to members of the
society. For example, the University of Benin was established by the University of Benin Act to
provide education to members of the society.