Suchergebnisse

The Social Science Information Service (SSIS), sponsored by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, provides current social science information on provisions of emerging legislation to members of Congress. Its mode of operation is described. It is not a lobby, even though the bills of potential interest are brought to the director's attention by the Congressional liaison. A brief history of the SSIS is presented; comments & research findings brought to Congressional committees have involved problems of aging, nutrition, national health insurance, work satisfaction, juvenile delinquency, family & child services, coercive therapy, & runaway youth. The most recent activity has been the location of information on noneconomic effects of unemployment. The latest annual report includes material on the rights of children, aging, newsletter appeals, juvenile delinquency & runaway youth. Proposed activities include presentations on crime, energy, welfare reform, health care, & aging. SSIS hopes to develop relations with Congressional staff members to provide consultants to bring social science information to bear on the drafting of legislation & the proposal of new legislation. SSIS also plans to make further contacts with social science professional organizations to promote cooperation in locating relevant research. Modified Author Summary.

Considers the ways social scientists participate in the policy process; on what aspects they concentrate and what areas they avoid. Examines the uses made of ideas and information generated by social scientific research. Discusses the structural and cultural conditions that facilitate or impede political influence of social scientists. (AFH)

This article defends laws in the social sciences. Arguments against social laws are considered and rejected based on the "open" nature of social theory, the multiple realizability of social predicates, the macro and/or teleological nature of social laws, and the inadequacies of belief-desire psychology. The more serious problem that social laws are usually qualified ceteris paribus is then considered. How the natural sciences handle ceteris paribus laws is discussed and it is argued that such procedures are possible in the social sciences. The article ends by arguing that at least some social research is roughly as well as confirmed as good work in evolutionary biology and ecology.

An article emphasizing 'the responsibility of soc sci'ts to adjust to the changing conditions of the changing world.' Because of the launching of Sputnik, great nat'l interest in the physical sci's developed, & extensive programs, with an emphasis on educ, were formulated to further the sel's. Although some of these programs were intended to include the soc sci's as well, their major concern has been the natural sci's. 3 major areas of responsibility of soc sci'ts today are discussed: (1) 'The responsibility to preserve & re-emphasize the soc sci's in the face of the pressure created by the near-hysterical urge to improve the fields of physical sci & engineering.' (2) To train well-qualified soc sci teachers. It is suggested that a BA be recognized as a teaching degree. (3) 'To maintain our integrity & to pursue our res & teaching in the face of the opposition & criticism which are always present in the soc sci's.' D. Pollack.

This volume explores the theoretical and methodological maturity and diversity in reflexive accounts of criminology and criminal justice in a number of areas, such as and teaching and research in criminology, queer criminology, the intersections of race and gender, indigeneity and decolonization, domestic violence and human rights.

This Article focuses on the Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) approach in criminology, which expands the crime reduction role well beyond the justice system. SCP sees criminal law in a more restrictive sense, as only part of the anticrime effort in governance. We examine the "general" and "specific" responses to crime problems in the SCP approach. Our review demonstrates that the most serious barrier to converting SCP techniques into policy remains the gap that exists between problem identification and problem response. We discuss past large-scale SCP interventions and explore the complex links between them and SCP's better known specificity and piecemeal approach. We develop a graded framework for selecting responses that acknowledge the local, political, and organizational issues involved in identifying and choosing them. This framework determines when SCP interventions and policies can be crafted on the macro level to eliminate or greatly reduce the problem everywhere, and when interventions should be limited to a piecemeal, local approach to eliminate only the specific problem. Finally, we situate this analysis within the general context of the relationship between science and policy, noting the challenges in converting scientific observations into broad social policy and the expansion of crime control beyond criminal justice into the realm of government regulation and partnerships with nongovernmental agencies.