Title

A Micro-Level Analysis Of Social Structure And Social Control: Intrastate Use Of Jail And Prison Confinement

Abstract

Although many efforts have been made to explain variation in the use of incarceration, two perspectives have dominated research. According to the first view, which may be labeled the orthodox perspective, the use of confinement rises and falls with the crime rate in direct response to the volume of criminal activity (Box and Hale 1982). The other view assumes that the crime rate plays a role in explaining the use of confinement, but focuses on other factors that are expected to exert significant direct effects on the use of punishment when variation in crime rate is controlled. Within this perspective a number of distinctive approaches can be identified. The “organizational” perspective focuses on a system’s capacity for social control, examining such factors as law enforcement effort and prison capacity as determinants of punishment (Abt 1980; Berk et al. 1981; Blumstein, Cohen, and Gooding 1983; Inverarity and McCarthy 1988; Jacobs 1978). Another view focuses on characteristics of the population, clisaggregating the incarceration rate by age, gender, and/or race (Blumstein, Cohen, and Miller 1980; Inverarity and McCarthy 1988). The most fully developed and widely tested nonorthodox position is that offered by conflict theory. This perspective focuses on structural characteristics of sanctioning, particularly the extent to which modes of labor exploitation and dominant/subordinant relations in a population influence the use of social control (Rusche and Kirchheimer 1939; Turk 1969). Of the three nonorthodox approaches, the conflict position seems to have found the most substantial empirical support. Considerable research suggests. © 1990 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Publication Date

1-1-1990

Publication Title

Justice Quarterly

Volume

7

Issue

2

Number of Pages

325-340

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/07418829000090601

Socpus ID

0040190500 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/0040190500

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