Revue des sciences politiques et des affaires publiques
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A Test of the Transcarceration Hypothesis: The Effect of Welfare on Coercive Control

Stephanie Bontrager Ryon

Research on the relationship between threatening populations and conditions, and mechanisms of social control has increased steadily since the publication of Blalock's, Theory of Minority Group Relations, in 1967. Blalock's theory of social threat and social control asserts that unique types of threat elicit distinct forms of social control. Social threat theorists typically present two types of social control: coercive controls and placative controls. Coercive controls include incarceration, arrest, and other types of formal state surveillance. Placative controls include programs and/or institutions, like welfare and mental health services, which protect or aid people in some way. Much of social threat research examines how certain populations or social conditions affect measures of social control. However, recently researchers have begun to examine the extent to which forms of social control are related to one another. This is typically referred to as the “trade off” hypothesis, which asserts that there is an inverse relationship between forms of social control. To test this hypothesis, the researcher will perform a meta-analysis of studies that explore the relationship between two macro forms of social control: welfare (placative), and incarceration and arrest (coercive).