Communities with the highest level of social control are small, homogeneous, and stable communities in remote areas relatively isolated from external destabilizing forces. In such communities, social order is maintained largely by the informal pressure of public opinion and the internalization of morals and values taught in families and the social institutions where children are taught and develop. There is little resort to formal controls such as legislation or full-time law enforcement personnel. With the changes brought by industrialization and urbanization, however, the shared values and institutions of the small homogeneous communities have fragmented, such that informal social controls have become less effective in molding the desired moral behaviors. Consequently, formal social controls through police agencies increased in prevalence and power. Still, in stable, urban neighborhoods a consensus about community values and behaviors can exist, and in such cases the police function best as facilitators and, when necessary, enforcers of these values. When possible, communities seem to prefer informal social control with a complementary police presence, rather than a pervasive police surveillance and constant intervention. 4 references