Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Divisions And Coercive Control In Advanced Societies: Law Enforcement Strength In Eleven Nations From 1975 To 1994., Stephanie L. Kent, David Jacobs

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

Conflict theory suggests that economic stratification poses a threat to order, so we should expect increased inequality to lead to a greater capacity for coercive control. The police are the primary agency that uses force to preserve order, yet we know little about the effects of economic divisions on police size in advanced nations besides the United States. The generality of findings based on a fixed-effects panel design applied to 11 developed nations should provide increased insight about how coercion is used to preserve domestic order. Other social divisions that should matter include minority presence and unemployment. With economic development, …