Arguably the most visible presence of social control in the community is ‘neighbourhood watch’. Often referred to as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the police, neighbourhood watch schemes are to be found in urban and rural communities, most notably in the UK and the US. Their purpose is to alert the police to incidents that appear to be breaking the law and to report suspicious or threatening behaviour by strangers. Schemes announce their presence with signs stating ‘This is a neighbourhood watch area’. Some of them exist in name only; others are well organised and active. There is evidence to suggest that the latter tend to be more prevalent in middle-class communities.

The issue of social control is almost always a high priority for communities – both those that experience acute forms of deprivation and so-called ‘gated’ communities where the homes of the well-off are protected by walls and fences in order to eliminate contact with the wider community. Fear of crime is dominant within our psyches and it is fuelled by the separation between social classes, between the well-off and the poor. Inevitably, it is heightened in communities where there are significant numbers of young people and where the crime rate is perceived to be high. Politicians are aware of the potency of social control and do not hesitate to introduce new policies and legislation in order to demonstrate their capacity to respond to the anxieties and fears of local people. As a consequence:

Social control assumes the presence of mechanisms and sanctions that regulate the behaviour of individuals and groups in order that people can live in a society that conforms to certain values and norms. All of us are concerned about social control – how to feel and be safe within society. The key question is how to handle the concern, how to achieve the right balance between the various means available to create and maintain social control.