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The possibility of utilizing an interdisciplinary team of operations analysts, frequently working with mathematical techniques rarely employed in criminology, to improve the operations of various crime control activities, is suggested. Procedures for translating typical criminological concerns into more rigorous manipulatable models are presented. Specifically, various applications of mathematical modelling, mathematical programming, game theory, Markov process theory & queing to problems of causality, police operations, courts, treatment & recidivism are explored. It is pointed out that the several mathematical techniques may be used to advantage not only in criminology, but frequently the questions which would be raised in the course of such study would be of broad sociol'al interest. AA.

Conflict is defined as a situation where actors are pursuing incompatible goals. It is assumed that the actors are acting if & only if they deem the value of the goal, weighed by the probability of attaining it, to be greater than the value of the means used, ie the value lost through the struggle. In terms of the variables of a conflict model, conditions of power balance are formulated, ie of a situation where both parties are determined to defend themselves if attacked, & neither attacks. A distinction is drawn between the pol'al burden of military aggression & the physical cost of warfare; similarly, it is distinguished between valuation of the goal from the point of view of expansion & from that of security. On the basis of these distinctions, the concepts of nonexpansive attitude & aggressiveness by fear are defined & their influence on the conditions of power balance is discussed. It is shown that in a situation where none of the actors is expansive & both perceive the other party's att as nonexpansive, peace is independent of military methods of conflict prevention, & thus the concept of power balance cannot be applied. Nonmilitary methods of conflict prevention are defined as measures aiming at influencing the actor's attitude in the direction of nonexpansiveness. Finally, it is attempted to formulate a survey of nonmilitary conflict prevention measures, based in part on how these measures influence the actor's expectations concerning warfare & internat'l cooperation, & in part on which of the value variables determining the actor's attitude they affect. IPSA.

For many yrs, the major alternatives to foster care for children have been placement in a foster fam or an instit. During the past 15 yrs, foster-fam agencies & instit's have developed 3 new major forms of foster care: (1) fam group homes, (2) agency-owned group foster homes, & (3) agency-operated group homes. These new forms of care have emerged as important placement resources for dependent, neglected, & emotionally disturbed children who cannot use the usual fosterfam home & who do not require instit'al placement. AA.

A description of penal methods which have been made by penal admin'ors & res'ers to assess the efficiency of various post-conviction methods of treating offenders. There is growing recognition of the need for such evaluations but concrete results are as yet limited. Various types of evaluation studies are discussed under 6 heads: (1) statistical studies using the follow-up method, statistical studies of particular types of disposition, statistical studies of particular types of offense or offender, comparative studies of diff methods of disposition, & exp'al res studies. It is concluded that there is evidence of rapid growth in serious res on many diff levels. Modified HA.

Der Streit um die Verwendung qualitativer oder quantitativer Methoden in der Sozialforschung hat eine lange Tradition, die bis zu Quetelet und Comte zurückverfolgt werden kann. Die Anhänger der quantitativen Methodik gehen davon aus, daß soziale Erscheinungen durch Klassifikation, Messung, statistische Analysen etc. angemessen zu erfassen sind; Vorbild sind hier die Naturwissenschaften. Die Vertreter einer qualitativen Methodik weisen hingegen darauf hin, daß quantitative Kategorien der sozialen Realität nicht gerecht werden können; diese muß in ihrer einzel- und ganzheitlichen Komplexität gewürdigt werden. In der Forschungsrealität finden sich die Extrempositionen jedoch kaum. Im allgemeinen herrscht eine eklektische Haltung vor. Die vorherrschende Methodologie, die tatsächlich quantitative und qualitative Ansätze verknüpft, gründet sich allerdings nicht auf eine systematisch-theoretische Konzeption. Um zu zeigen, auf welche Sachverhalte die Sozialforschung Rücksicht zu nehmen hat, beschreibt der Verfasser die Besonderheiten situativen Handelns; alle Phänomene, die sozialwissenschaftlich relevant sind, lassen sich auf situatives Handeln zurückführen. Hier sind vor allem drei Eigenschaften zu beachten: Objektivität der Sozialstruktur, Verständlichkeit des Gezeigten und Kontextabhängigkeit des Sinnes. Um die Kontextabhängigkeit des Sinnes zu verdeutlichen, werden ethnomethodologische Forschungsergebnisse herangezogen. Immer lassen sich kontextfreie Interaktionsmechanismen aufweisen. Die Sozialstruktur kann als Grundlage und als Produkt situativen Handelns untersucht werden. Ausgehend von den dargelegten empirischen Betrachtungen zieht der Beitrag methodologische Konsequenzen. Die traditionelle Unterscheidung von nomothetischer und idiographischer Wissenschaft wird abgelehnt. Quantitative und qualitative Verfahren sind zu verbinden. "Objektive Forschung" muß "innere" und "äußere Stimmigkeit" aufweisen. (JL)

The structuralist & genetic conception of the sociol of literature, originated by George Lukacs, is analyzed. 5 basic principles of genetic structuralist sociol are enumerated. They are viewed as indicating that, (1) in the case of the sociol of literature, the res worker must seek to discover a structure which accounts for practically the whole of the text, & he must add nothing to it. (2) He must not overestimate the importance of the individual in the explanation, whether individual or collective, for which the mental structure which governs the work has a functional & signif character. (3) What are commonly called 'influences' have no explanatory value & at the very most constitute a factor & a problem which the res worker must explain. 'In short, comprehension is a problem of the internal coherence of the text, which presupposes that the text, the whole of the text & nothing but the text is taken literally & that, within it, one seeks an overall signif structure.' Several examples are provided, among them analyses of portions LES PENSEES (Thoughts) of B. Pascal & the tragedies of J. Racine. Starting from a text which for him represents a mass of empirical data similar to those by which any other sociol'st who undertakes a piece of res is faced, the sociol'at of literature must first tackle the problem of ascertaining how far those data constitute a signif object, a structure on which positive res can be carried out with fruitful results. The diff's are pointed out between the structuralist sociol of literature & the traditional explanation offered by psychoanalysis or literary history. Traditional methods are concerned with the content of literary works & the relationship between that content & the collective consciousness, or the ways in which men think & behave in daily life. The sociol'al explanations of the Lukacsian Sch pose the problem of the work as a unitary structure of the laws which govern its universe & of the link between that structured universe & the form in which it is expressed. Lastly, the possibility of extending res is discussed by taking as a starting point Julia Kristeva's study on Bakhtin (Critique No.239). E. Weiman.

The purpose of voting is to choose from among alternatives available. Voting methods which record only the most preferred alternative have been criticized for failing to take the order of alternatives into account. 2 criteria have been proposed as having adequately resolved this criticism. The Condorcet criterion selects that alternative which defeats every other alternative in a pairwise election. The Borda criterion, as a supplement when the Condorcet criterion fails, accounts for the order of the alternatives. These methods are taken as standard, & several other voting methods (plurality, runoff, & exhaustive) are compared by using pseudo-randomly generated data to depict voter preferences. These randomly generated preferences are submitted to each voting method for scoring. 10,000 elections were simulated in this fashion & the winners selected by each method were compared. The plurality method disagreed with the other methods in 13 to 34% of the elections. It disagreed with the Condorcet & Borda criteria in 31 & 24% of the elections. This commonly used voting method selects the "wrong" candidate in a large proportion of cases, & its validity as a method of selecting the most preferred alternative is questioned. 6 Tables. AA.

The increasing use of quantitative methods in policy analysis raises a number of problems connected with 'squishy' or ill-defined problems, which are frequently encountered in governmental policy formation. Such problems can be defined by the absence of an unequivocal basis for choosing a mathematical model. A 3-level conceptual model of such problems is formulated: the actual problem, the formal problem resulting from conceptualizing the actual problem, & the mathematical model of the formal problem. The formal problem may derive from the actual problem, & risk being unanalyzable; or it may derive from the analytical techniques available, & risk being irrelevant. 2 ways of using models are distinguished: (1) as surrogates for substantive problems, such as Newtonian mechanics, or (2) as perspectives on them, such as 2-dimensional perspective drawing. The 2nd approach may be preferable in dealing with 'squishy' problems, despite its risks. 7 Figures. Modified HA.

A survey of major pieces of res distinguishes between the as yet unsatisfactory situation in Europe & the situation in the US, where crime prevention exp's were started over 25 yrs ago. Some major problems in the field are identified: res design, stimuli & criteria for effect. A brief & mostly critical evaluation of evaluative res is followed by a concluding section on soc forces behind preventive res. AA.

The flow & structure of international news in general & the Johan Galtung-Mari Holmboe Ruge theory ("The Structure of Foreign News," Journal of Peace Research, 1965, 2, 64-91 & Oystein Sande, "The Perception of Foreign News," Journal of Peace Research, 1971, 8, 221-237) in particular are discussed from a methodological, empirical, & theoretical perspective. Most of the attempts that have been made empirically to test the Galtung-Ruge theory are far from satisfactory, especially the additivity & complementarity hypotheses, which neglect extramedia data. Indeed, the construction of the theory as a whole is such that it may be difficult if not impossible to disprove it in its totality, although parts of it may be quite amenable to empirical tests. Some tests are presented based on K. E. Rosengren's research on coverage of parliamentary elections (INTERNATIONAL NEWS: METHODS, DATA, AND THEORY, Lund, Sweden: U Lund, 1973 [mimeo]). The outcome of these tests leads to the conclusion that the Galtung-Ruge theory--largely psychological in its approach--should be placed within a broader perspective, ie, within an economic & political perspective. In A REJOINDER, Johan Galtung responds to each of Rosengren's criticisms: (1) that the negative r could have resulted from a negative r in the universe, (2) that there may be a selection relative to reality, & (3) that the theory is practically untestable. 3 Tables. Modified Author's Summary.