NCJ Number
146011
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 30 Issue: 4 Dated: (November 1993) Pages: 383-399
Date Published
1993
Length
17 pages
Annotation
The author sets forth a long-term, dynamically responsive, contextualized criminal justice meta-theory.
Abstract
Theory is important, and good criminologists will use them in a flexible manner to illuminate their reading of situations. In the meta-theory, competing theories are integrated such that the strengths of one may cover for the weaknesses of another. At any given time, there is no single best policy--persuasion is better than deterrence until persuasion fails; deterrence is better than persuasion if the trust implied by persuasion has been abused; incapacitation is better than deterrence when deterrence has failed. Some recommendations on the reform agenda include learning to distinguish what is and is not locally applicable in strategies from different places and times; shifting research resources to policymaker-researcher teams who focus on long-term, multifaceted strategies; and giving these strategies greater status than static explanatory theories. Positivist criminology should not be rejected, but put in its place; random-allocation experiments and big cohort studies are useful, but to regard as an ultimate value of science the discovery of a single, all-explaining set of law-like statements represents an inadequate approach to criminology. 7 endnotes and 53 references