ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the bounded and interrelated variables of social control. Fluctuations in theoretical development could have the greatest impact on reducing socially harmful behavior, but theory has a peripheral influence on social control purposes, definitions, methods, and outcomes. The chapter distinguishes between two methods or channels if the reader prefers, of social control: mechanisms of control and agents of control. The stated purposes and the measured outcomes of social control change over time due to changing contents of concern brought forth by moral panics and by macro-level shifts in the politics and economics of a society. Considering methods and outcomes of control together, it is becoming well documented that more is not necessarily better and that technological advancements by no means guarantee deviance reduction. Agents of social control are bounded by range of target and by function. Agents vary in the degree to which they cross function and processing boundaries.
