Women and the social control system in Texas, 1850--1899: A test of Black's general theory of social control

The purpose of this study was to test empirically the central hypothesis of Black's (1976) general theory of social control. This hypothesis states that formal and informal social control are inversely related. That is, as one increases, the other decreases. Black further states that levels of formal social control are related to levels of stratification and organization, and inversely related to levels of morphology and culture. Black defines stratification as the uneven distribution of wealth, prestige, and respectability within societies. Organization is defined as the societal capacity for collective action. Morphology refers to networks of interaction within a society including division of labor and specialization. Culture refers to the symbolic aspects of a society including religion, myth, and literature.;Black (1976 and 1984) provided a great deal of anecdotal evidence in support of his theory, but he provided no empirical assessment of his theory or its central hypothesis. Previous empirical studies of Black's theory have been either inconclusive or have suffered validity problems. For Black's theory to hold as a general theory, it should be valid over time and across race, gender, and social class. This study assesses empirically Black's central hypothesis as it applies to women living in a multi-cultural society. The study utilizes data on women living in mid- to late 19th Century Texas, a multi-cultural, multi-racial society.;Analysis is based on official documents from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, newspapers, and other documents from the era of analysis. Quantitative analyses and content analyses of these data assessed the relationship between the informal and formal social controls applied to women over a period of 50 years from 1859 to 1899.;Five research hypotheses guided the analysis. Hypothesis One states that the level of formal social control for women increases as societal levels of stratification increases. Hypothesis Two states that the level of formal social control for women increases as societal levels of organization increases. Hypothesis Three: The level of formal social control for women decreases as states that societal levels of morphology (differentiation or specialization) increases. Hypothesis Four states that the level of formal social control for women decreases as societal levels of culture increases. Finally, Hypothesis Five states that the level of formal social control for women is negatively correlated with the level of informal social control for women.;The results of the analysis indicated that formal social control is negatively correlated with stratification. The analysis of the results also indicated that formal social control is positively correlated with organization, morphology, and culture.;Finally, the analysis indicated that formal social control seems to be positively correlated with informal social control. The implications of these results for Black's theory and for the criminal justice system are discussed.