RT Article
T1 What Is Informal Social Control?: a Concept Consensus Review of Recent Criminological Literature
JF Canadian journal of criminology and criminal justice
VO 66
IS 1
SP 63
OP 86
A1 Linning, Shannon J.
A2 Eck, John E.
A2 Olaghere, Ajima
A2 Steinman, Hannah
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1898161224
AB Is there consensus among criminologists about the meaning of informal social control? Some prominent criminologists say no. We conduct a concept consensus review of all articles using the term in the top 10 journals in criminology from 2010 to 2020 to test their dissensus assertion. We found 597 articles that mention informal social control. Of the 228 articles where the term was important to the study, only 41 attempt to define the concept. We assessed each conceptual definition using four definitional elements: subject, action, object, and reason. One or more elements were missing from most conceptual definitions. Combining the mode of the most specified elements, informal social control may mean "residents intervening with youth/children to reduce crime." But dissensus is more common than consensus; authors differ on who applied controls, what those controls were, who was controlled, or the reasons for the control. This raises questions about how to proceed with the study of informal social control.
K1 community criminology
K1 contrôle social informel
K1 criminologie communautaire
K1 criminology theory
K1 Informal Social Control
K1 mesures des résidents
K1 Neighbourhood
K1 quartier
K1 resident action
K1 théorie de la criminologie
DO 10.3138/cjccj-2023-0024