CRIM 210 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Y Chromosome, Urban Sociology, Autonomic Nervous System
14 Apr 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Chapter 5: explaining crime and delinquency: in the beginning . Taken for granted understandings differ from scientific beliefs that are accepted as true because these beliefs have been subjected to empirical testing. Empirical testing: an adjective describing knowledge that is based on observation, experience, or experiment rather than on theory or philosophy. Postmodernists: those who reject or challenge all that has been considered to be modern. Even scientific knowledge has no more claim to truth than taken for granted understandings. Positivism: an 18th century philosophical, theoretical, and methodological perspective positing that only that which is observable through the scientific method is knowable. Whether we can be certain that there is no other causal factor related to both factors. Three conditions have to be met before causality can be established. Logic of the method is to ensure objectivity. Positivists argue that you cannot ask someone why they committed a crime because his answer will be biased toward their own perspective.
