Supplementing the Positivistic Perspective (From Positive Criminology, P 138-153, 1987, Michael R Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi, eds. -- See NCJ-107372)

• NCJ Number: 107381
• Author(s): H Toch
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

Supplementation of positivism requires the sort of closure that includes both the specification of reliable variables (traits and conditions) and the inquiry into how these variables impinge on individuals and translate into personal motivation.

Abstract

Healy and Bronner (1969) provide a convincing example of a 'positivistic' (data-based) deployment of information derived from interviews. Healy and Bronner examined how ostensibly similar environments could yield both delinquents and nondelinquents, with attention to case histories of delinquents and nondelinquents. The focus was on the problems each child presented to the family and the problems the family presented to delinquent and nondelinquent siblings. The most revealing data relate to evolving parent-child transactions. Only data collection that included inventories of behaviors, feelings, and attitudes could have isolated the factors that distinguished delinquents from nondelinquents. Comprehensive research that produces reliable crime-cause theory must be multidisciplinary and include clinical studies that explore the mind content of both offenders and nonoffenders who interact with similar macrovariables.