Social Control Research Cluster

Research in the Social Control Cluster encompasses the origins of interpersonal, collective and social violence; the consequences of incarceration; sex work and stigma; and discrimination and violence.

Focusing on a broad array of topics, we examine the origins, characteristics, and consequences of social control. Some of our current research asks:

  • How do social control institutions contribute to the very problems they seek to manage?
  • How does stigma influence drug use and other outcomes among people who work in the sex and other service industries?
  • Why are the kids at the bottom and the top of a school social hierarchy the least likely to bully their peers?  

 

  • Cluster-related graduate courses 
  • SOC 220 – Deviance, Law, and Social Control
    SOC 255 – Sociology of Law
    SOC 290 – Special Topics

    Please read the course descriptions for more information.
  • Alumni
  • Students who have graduated from our program with an interest in crime, law, deviance or social control include:

    Angela Carter (Ph.D., 2017), Research and Policy Fellow, Policy Advocacy Clinic at Berkeley Law
    Monica Williams (Ph.D., 2013), Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice Department, Weber State. “Assessing Stereotypes of Adolescent Rape” (Journal of Criminal Justice, 2015).
    Teresa Casey (Ph.D., 2011), Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice, Idaho State University. Recipient of the American Society of Criminology Outstanding Paper Award for “Love, Sex and Crime: Adolescent Romantic Relationships and Offending” (American Sociological Review, 2008).
    Ursula Castellano (Ph.D., 2005), Associate Professor, Ohio University, Athens. Outsourcing Justice: The Role of Nonprofits in Pretrial Release Programs (First Forum Press, 2010).
    Monica Martin (Ph.D., 2005), Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, Texas Tech University.
    Jennifer Reich (Ph.D., 2003), Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Colorado Denver. Recipient of the Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award, from the American Sociological Association, Race, Gender and Class Section, 2007 for Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System (Routledge).
    Jennifer Dunn (Ph.D., 1999), Professor, Department of Sociology, Texas Tech University. Recipient of the Charles Horton Cooley Book Award, Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, 2005, for Courting Disaster: Intimate Stalking, Culture, and Criminal Justice (Aldine de Gruyter).
    Ann Nurse (Ph.D., 1999), Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of Wooster. Fatherhood Arrested: Parenting from Within the Juvenile Justice System (Vanderbilt University Press, 2002).