Social Control Model Research Articles

A psychological model of social control and stigmatization: Evolutionary background and practical implications

The strengths and limitations of three main theoretical approaches to social control and stigmatization are discussed, originating from social psychology, sociology and anthropology, and evolutionary psychology, respectively. A theoretical model is proposed that integrates universal (evolutionary derived) psychological aspects of social control and the great variation that can be observed in responding to deviance within and between cultures and historical periods. Practical implications of the model are discussed.

Civil Democracy, Perceived Risk, and Insecurity in Brazil: An Extension of the Systemic Social Control Model

This article examines the possible relationship between democracy and perceptions of risk and safety in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. The author combines the argument that violence and insecurity in Brazil are consequences of the lack of civil democracy with insights from systemic social control theorists, who argue that perceptions of risk depend on the interaction of social control on private, parochial, and public levels. While social bonds at the private and parochial level did not affect perceptions of safety, public-level bonds, such as support for democratic government and legitimacy of neighborhood police, had positive effects on perceptions of security. However, contrary to the author’s hypotheses, support for authoritarianism and generalized distrust of the police also decreased perceptions of risk in the case of robbery.

Symulakry wymiaru sprawiedliwości wobec nieletnich w Polsce

The article relates to the analysis of responses to violence in the everyday life of a democratic society. The evolution of the juvenile criminal justice system serves here as a litmus paper of the today's neo-liberal European countries. The article critically evaluates the arguments of F. Bailleau and Y. Cartuyvels who present the development of contemporary juvenile justice in terms of neo-liberalism. They claim it is the main reason to answer the question of how long the child should be treated as a child? However, we are still left with the question of what to do with those young people who act like offenders who demand more severe punishment. In her paper, the author presents the possible model of social control that responds to violence using the F.H. McClintoc's model adopted and modified in the model presented by D. Black in Behaviour of Law. The author argues that selecting a criminal model from among different possible models of social control might be an influence of the neo-liberal policy, yet it is not necessary. The examination of different models currently present in the society should help to answer the question of whether the present policy results from the neo-liberal policy as F. Bailleau and Y. Cartuyvels suggest? Or is it rather due to what Zygmunt Bauman named as the penal effect of globalisation? The author examines how much of the present practice within the juvenile justice fits Jean Baudrillard's era of simulacra where we offlcially tend to fight crime and do good, but in practice, as Michel Foucault pointed long time ago, the goal is somewhat different and detached from both the perpetrator and the victim? The paper also looks at how accurate in this case the analysis of Pierre Bourdieu would be that we tend to accept the perceived reality as natural, for we do not have the proper procedure to see that other solutions are also possible? At the end the paper, the author suggests what elements should be included within juvenile justice system to free it of the simulacra syndrome.

Markets and Their Social Construction

Warren J. Samuels Markets and Their Social Construction INTRODUCTION My objective is to outline a model of how markets arise and work and are worked. My argument is that markets are neither given nor tran­ scendental but are constructed by the actions of firms and govern­ ments. Several qualifications apply. First, a model is given, not a theory. A model is a set of vari­ ables structured in a particular way to explain something. A theoiy is a hypothesis specified as a particular explanation, the social space to which it is applied, the evidence by which it will be tested, and the deci­ sion rule governing acceptance or rejection. Second, no model can answer all questions. To answer other ques­ tions, other models are needed. Third, eveiy element of the model can be combined with differ­ ent theories. Fourth, no particular theory is adopted; the model is suggested in which particular theories have meaning. MARKETS “Market” is typically understood as the price mechanism and analyzed through some definition of “competition.” Typical are fix-price and/or flex-price and strategic game-theoretic models, including limit-entry, administered, and mark-up pricing models. Price is not transcendent; it both controls firms and is an instrument of their power and policy. Economic actors are treated as active agents of change. social research Vol 71 : No 2 : Summer 2004 357 Markets are socially constructed, neither given and transcenden­ tal nor natural but organized to promote some interests rather than others; which interests and how they are chosen and structured, are issues to be determined. A distinction exists between (a) a pure abstract a-institutional conceptual m arket, and (b) an actual m arket that is a function of and gives effect to the institutions and forces that structure and operate through it. One tendency is to theorize in term s of (a) and assum e that (b) comports with (a), selectively reinforcing or criticiz­ ing existing law. The market as an institution and a product of other institutions differs from its conceptualization as a mechanism of price formation. The former view of the market—as process, the result of power, and an arena of power—is absent in the latter (Swedberg, 2003, chap. five). The belief that markets are necessarily competitive begs the definition of competition. Markets are not themselves efficient; they can yield efficient results. The “efficient functioning of m arkets” and “efficient m arket” lack substantive content. Analyses typically explain and designate an outcome as efficient in the sense of either exhausting gains from trade (Pareto optimality) or output maximization. Efficiency in either sense takes place in markets but is driven by agents’ actions, not by “the m arket” alone. No single efficient result exists. Efficiency is rightsstructure dependent; different rights structures yielding different effi­ cient allocations, each specific to and generated by a particular rights structure. Efficiency cannot be used to determine rights without the use of some antecedent normative premise as to whose interests are to count; indeed, the structure of rights is often the point at issue. Resource allocation is driven not by markets alone but by the institu­ tions and forces that form and operate through markets, plus agents’ actions. The evolutionary dynamics of markets—the core of the present model—and the equilibrating adjustment process are more relevant here than the properties of static equilibrium. 358 social research One circularity in the concept of “market” relates to the “law of one price”: that only one price for a commodity can exist in a market. However, a market is often defined in terms of there being only one price for a commodity. The “m arket” is increasingly seen to be a metaphor. But a m etaphor for what? A m echanism , an institution, a process, all of the above, or what? If the invisible hand is identified as the market, one m etaphor is used to define another metaphor. The “m arket” is used here as a primitive, undefined term —both begging num er­ ous questions and cautioning the reader not to substitute his or her favored connotation(s). THE MODEL The social construction of markets combines two models of social control: the market-plus-framework model...

Direitos civis e Direitos Humanos: uma tradição judiciária pré-republicana?

O tema deste artigo está centrado na justiça criminal no Brasil, buscando demonstrar que as relações entre modelos repressivos de controle social, formas inquisitoriais de produção da verdade jurídica e desigualdade jurídica formam um todo coerente em nossa justiça criminal, embora contrário à ordem republicana explícita do Estado brasileiro contemporâneo.

The Group Control Catastrophe

This study elaborates a surprising finding by Heckathorn (1990). His simulation of group-mediated social control models a situation in which an agent outside a group tries to obtain compliance by group members through the administration of sanctions. In general, group compliance increases as the agent's monitoring efficacy increases. The surprising finding is that under certain conditions group compliance collapses to zero for intermediate values of the monitoring efficacy. In this study I show this is part of a catastrophe, a bifurcation into two equilibria for intermediate values of the monitoring efficacy. Whether the group exists at a high-compliance or low-compliance equilibrium depends on the occurrence of simultaneous non-payoff-maximizing cooperation or defection. Cooperation pushes the group to the high-compliance equilibrium; defection knocks it to the low-compliance equilibrium. The catastrophe is robust: it exists for a range of parameter values and for different production functions for the public good (benefits from group compliance).

Institutional Strength, Social Control and Neighborhood Crime Rates

While the systemic model that today's theories of social disorganization are based on acknowledges that neighborhood-based institutions may vary in their ability to contribute to effective social control, relatively little attention has been given to their role in understanding neighborhood rates of crime. At the same time, there is contradictory evidence about the role of social networks, which have been the focus of much research attention. This article builds upon past work to present a model of neighborhood-based institutional social control to address this lack of attention. The model centers on a conceptualization of institutional strength that distinguishes between the dimensions of institutional strength, and the causes and effects of variation in institutional strength.

“Unless she gives better satisfaction”: Teachers, Protestant Education, and Community in Rural Quebec, Lochaber and Gore District, 1863-1945

This study explores the complex relationships from 1863 to 1945 between the Board of School Trustees of Lochaber and Gore, its teachers, and parents, to reveal how these different parties influenced, resisted, and consented to changes in local schooling. Thus, the analysis moves away from a social control model which has dominated the literature on schooling in Quebec to reveal the local dynamics at work in the community. The Protestants of Lochaber and Gore were a microcosm of the larger Protestant community in Quebec. All of the problems associated with rural education in poor regions across Quebec, such as teacher transiency, widespread poverty and a modest tax base, the primitive nature of one-room schoolhouses, and conflict between the seasonal demands of agriculture and school time, existed here. This investigation is based on historical documents from the Archives of the Western Quebec School Board in addition to newspaper accounts and local histories.

The compliance you need for a cost you can afford: How to use individual and collective sanctions?

In many naturally occurring situations, actors ( agents) use individual sanctions or collective sanctions or both to obtain compliance from members of a group. Individual sanctions are sanctions applied to each individual based on that individual’s perceived behavior; collective sanctions are sanctions to all group members based on perceived behavior by some group members. Often, there are constraints on the amount of sanctions an agent may use. I use Heckathorn’s (1990) sequential decision model of group-mediated social control to analyze the power of an agent concerning compliance by group members under such constraints. Results show that whether positive or negative sanctions are considered, the amount of group compliance is an increasing but non-linear step function of the looseness of the constraints. Moreover, it appears that the most cost-effective use of power entails using only collective sanctions when lower levels of compliance are sought, only individual sanctions when higher levels of compliance are sought, and never mixing the two.

Self-control and social control in childhood misconduct and aggression: The role of family structure, hyperactivity, and hostile parenting

Debates about the causes of childhood misconduct have juxtaposed the utility of self-control models which stress persistent traits of impulsiveness versus social control models which stress the benefits of social capital arising from attachments to family and community over the life cycle. To test the value of these approaches with population data, we examined models of misconduct and aggression in children aged 4 to 11 using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (n=13,067). We establish that structural, individual, and process variables contribute individually and significantly to both aggression and misconduct. Childhood hyperactivity and hostile parenting each appear to elevate significantly the risks of youthful aggression and misconduct. The proposition that self-control versus social control perspectives are mutually exclusive is rejected. Aversive parenting practices as well as individual traits contribute to child behavior problems in every age cohort tested. Such aversive traits in parents and their children appear to coincide. Further work is needed to determine the direction of effect.

Comparing cultures, comparing crime: Challenges, prospects and problems for a global criminology

Globalization will intensify contacts – and perhaps conflicts – betweencultures more than ever in the history of humankind. The flow of migrantsaround the world, global business and global consumption provide us withnew experiences of difference and diversity as well as of common ground.As in other social sciences, the concept of culture has recently emerged oncentre stage in criminology. Western criminologists look in awe to Asia, andtry to solve the enigma of modern, affluent societies with low ratesespecially of violent crimes. Asian criminologists warn of an impact ofWestern culture that might cause rising crime rates. Asian models of socialcontrol are studied and adopted in Australia, Europe and the US, and viceversa.Crime and social control are social and cultural phenomena. Therefore,comparing cultures and comparing crime will offer new insights, freshtheories and chances of innovative perspectives. What is to learn fromcultural differences, what from universals in crime and social control? Whatwill be the fate of ``general theories of crime'' in different cultures? Willpractices of criminal justice be efficient when transported to another socialand cultural environment?Criminologists should develop a clear notion of the problems that arerelated to comparing cultures and crime. Cultures are not monolithic.Cultural comparisons often suffer from exaggerations of differences, andproduce exaggerated predictions and expectations. On its way into theglobalized 21st century, criminology will have to develop strategies to meetthe challenge of comparing cultures, to avoid former errors, and to solvethe problems that lie ahead.

The populace and the police: Models of social control in reality‐based crime television

While prior research, popular conceptions, and industry literature treat reality‐based crime television as a homogenous genre of programming, this research highlights considerable intra‐genre diversity. Quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that programs contain considerable ideological diversity, as expressed by contrasting means of pursuing and apprehending malfeasants. A case study shows that Cops establishes and justifies police as the authoritarian agents of criminal control while America's Most Wanted reserves the heroic space for ordinary citizens. As adopters of two different law and order narratives, these programs endorse divergent means of serving justice. While both crime narratives fundamentally are concerned with the archetypal conflict between good and evil, order and disorder, these shows foster distinct imperatives for belief and action.

INFORMAL NETWORKS, SOCIAL CONTROL, AND THIRD-PARTY COOPERATION.

Network models of social control suggest that informal ties between managers can have an important role in helping these managers to catalyze cooperation in their task environment. By enhancing the managers' ability to coordinate their behavior towards third parties, networks can help them pose concerted demands on such parties, increasing the social pressure to cooperate for reluctant players and reducing behavioral uncertainty for cooperative ones. An analysis of project teams within the Italian subsidiary of a multinational high-technology firm shows that the intensity of communication among the managers coordinating a team increased the probability and the level of cooperation between managers and other team members, as well as between those team members.

“Why are You Bored?”: An Examination of Psychological and Social Control Causes of Boredom Among Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to better understand the causes of boredom using psychologically based and social control models of boredom. For this study, 82 8th grade students completed two questionnaires, a face to face interview, and participated in a four day activity diary over a two week period of time. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to assess the extern to which adolescents' level of boredom differed depending upon their reason for participating in the activity and on the individual characteristics they brought to the situation. Both psychological and social control variables helped to explain boredom. The results are discussed from a developmental and practical perspective.

Theoretical Model with Reciprocal Effects of Youthful Crime and Drug Use

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study of 1,093 adolescents from six public high schools was to see if a social control model with several reciprocal relationships between social learning elements and delinquency was useful. The same hypothesized model was applied to criminal behavior, alcohol use, and other drug use.Whereas the hypothesized theoretical model does explain considerable variation in frequency of alcohol use and of criminal behavior (22% and 24%, respectively), it does not account for much variance in drug use (6%). On the other hand, there are several reciprocal relationships in common across these forms of delinquency. The study clearly supports the need to formulate and test models with reciprocal effects. The social work implications of these findings are discussed.

A Contextual Model of Adolescent Alcohol Use across the Rural-Urban Continuum

In the research presented here, we develop and test with respondents from a broad range of contexts a multilevel social control model of adolescent substance use, integrating macro- and microsociological and criminological perspectives. Specifically, this research examines the individual-level social control processes or mechanisms thought to lead to alcohol use embedded in school contexts in different community settings along the rural-urban continuum. In this way we determine 1) the main effects of individual- and contextual school-level variables and 2) the conditioning or moderating influences of school climate on individual alcohol use and on individual-level processes leading to alcohol use. Furthermore, given that our sample contains students from a broad range of settings along the rural-urban continuum, our findings address the appropriateness of conceptualizing rural and urban drug use and their respective etiologies as dichotomous. In this respect our findings suggest that heterogeneity in drug use exists within rural school settings as well as within urban school settings, and that examining rural drug use as separate from urban drug use is not justified. [Translations are provided in the International s Section of this issue.]

Parents, Religion and Perceived Social Coherence: A Durkheimian Framework of Adolescent Anomie

Different aspects of religiosity have been found to be positively related to physical, psychological and social well-being. Several scholars have suggested that religious beliefs, religious communities, and perceived divine support may provide individuals with a sense of coherence, which in turn has positive effects on individual well-being. This coherence hypothesis is in fact the inverse of the Durkheimian concept of anomie. This paper specifies and tests a structural model of social control, social support, religious participation, religious orthodoxy, and perceived divine support, in relation to perceived exteriority and constraint among adolescents. The results indicate that parental support and religious participation increases the perceived exteriority and constraint of the social world, while parental rule setting, religious orthodoxy, and divine support do not have an independent effect.

Rational Choice, Situated Action, and the Social Control of Organizations

The legal and administrative apparatus responsible for the social control of organizations relies extensively on the deterrent effects of punishment. This strategy presumes a rational choice model of organizational misconduct that decontextualizes decisionmaking, emphasizing consequences while ignoring how preferences are formed. I raise three challenges to the rational choice/deterrence model of social control: (1) research and theory on decisionmaking, (2) a sociological paradigm that situates individual action in a structure/culture/agency nexus that influences interpretation, meaning, and action at the local level, and (3) an analysis of the Challenger launch decision at NASA as situated action, showing how structure, culture, and history shaped preferences and choice. These challenges suggest a need to reorient regulatory activity toward the social context of decisionmaking. I conclude with a research agenda to explore the relationship between situated action, preference formation, and rational choice.

Corporate Ethics Initiatives As Social Control

Efforts to institutionalize ethics in corporations have been discussed without first addressing the desirability of norm conformity or the possibility that the means used to elicit conformity will be coercive. This article presents a theoretical context, grounded in models of social control, within which ethics initiatives may be evaluated. Ethics initiatives are discussed in relation to variables that already exert control in the workplace, such as environmental controls, organizational controls, and personal controls.

La transnationalisation du champ pénal : réflexions sur les mutations du crime et du contrôle

Transnationalization of the Penal Field : Some Considerations on Change in Crime and Control. Recent past years have witnessed crime sliding from the local into the global sphere. From this standpoint, the world conceived as a hierarchical network appears as an old-fashioned model of social control. Organized crime is replaced by transnational crime. To understand the processes of such a criminality, it is necessary to deal with them in terms of « globalized localisms » and « localized globalisms ». In such a context, the full meaning of the increasing repression in public policies comes into view e.g. in the fight against drug trafficking. In the same way, it becomes easier to discern why and how supranational institutions and transnational processes of control emerge. Such a repressive System of control based on « security » is presently at work within the European Union and attests to an increasing security ideology.