The size and composition of populations that pose a social threat are likely to influence a policy maker’s decision regarding the most appropriate form of social control. In this study, the authors investigate whether policy makers representing counties with relatively high percentages of threatening populations are more likely to prioritize criminal justice over education than policy makers representingcounties with relatively low percentages of such populations. The data for this research come from a national survey of elected and appointed county leaders. The authors find that policy makers are more likely to prioritize criminal justice over education when a large proportion of 16-to 19-year-old county residents are not officially employed in the labor market or enrolled in school. The authors conclude that county policy makers tend to favor direct forms of social control (e.g., criminal justice) over ideological forms (e.g., education) as the level of unsupervised county residents of prime street crime age increases.
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