MODELING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MACRO FORMS OF SOCIAL-CONTROL

The last decade has witnessed a plethora of macro studies of various f orms of social control ranging from lynching to hospitalization. Unfor tunately, these specific areas of research tend to be isolated from ea ch other and do not constitute a recognizable literature. This paper s hifts the focus of study from substantive forms of social control to t heoretical issues that cut across them. One such issue is the relation ship between forms of social control. First, the paper explicates this issue. Second, the paper reviews and critiques three specific researc h literatures on the relationships between various forms of social con trol that are isolated from each other although they bear on the same theoretical questions. Third, the paper argues that bivariate relation ships between forms of social control are not meaningful theoretically in that they are not clearly derived from general theories of social control. Fourth, the paper argues that we should focus on the causal p rocesses and structures that underlie the relationships between forms of social control and explicate their implications for these relations hips.