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DOI: 10.1177/0032885504265079 Who Doesnt Know Someone in Jail? The Impact of Exposure to Prison on Attitudes Toward Formal and Informal ControlsJohn Jay College of Criminal Justice
John Jay College of Criminal Justice This paper examines how experience with the criminal justice system contextualizes the relationship between peoples attitudes toward informal and formal social controls. In a survey of residents of Leon County, Florida, we asked respondents whether or not they knew someone who had been incarcerated. We also asked about their assessment of informal controls in their neighborhoods and about public control with questions about police, judges, and the criminal justice system as a whole. We find that knowing someone who has been incarcerated makes people with a low assessment of formal control also have a low opinion of informal control. Blacks are more likely than nonblacks to have a low opinion of informal social control only if they have not been exposed to incarceration. Knowing someone who has been incarcerated makes blacks and nonblacks just as likely to hold a negative assessment of informal social control.
Key Words: informal social controls formal social controls incarceration neighborhood
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