CRIM 220 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Barney Glaser, Social Disorganization Theory, Inductive Reasoning
25 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
Criminal justice in particular, and human behavior in general, can be studied scientifically: cj research often examines questions that cannot easily be reduced to scientific measures. Theory, not philosophy or belief: social science can assist us in knowing only what is and why. Regularities: social science aims to find patterns of regularity in social life, vast number of norms and rules in society create regularity, observations also creates regularity. A variable language: as researchers, our interest centers on variables and aggregates, not on individuals, e. g. ultimate purpose in studying domestic violence cases is to identify ways to protect potential victims from future assaults. Independent variable: presumed to cause or determine a dependent variable if we discover that police cynicism is partly a function of years of experience, then experience is the independent variable and cynicism is the dependent variable. Social scientific research is conducted in a variety of ways.
