Citation

Riemer S. Am. J. Sociol. 1942; 48(2): 188-201.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1942, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/219121

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In current criminological literature the concept "cause" is abandoned and replaced by the measurement of probabilities and crime risks attached to various attributes of the individual. This article stresses the need for theoretical guidance of empirical research entailing a network of hypothetical and verified statements pertaining to the level of cause-and-effect relationships. The correlation of random attributes or configuration of attributes with crime should be replaced by a conscious search for significant units which may be assumed as active in the process of causation. Assumptions are required as to the interaction between the various factors involved, containing an interpretation of the causal sequence. Statistical verification, to be sure, will have to be limited to the measurement of probabilities which gain sociological significance in their relation to a theoretical framework of causal relations. To achieve close co-operation between theory and statistical verification, it is attempted to indicate the mutual relationship between the theoretical concept of the "ideal type," on the one hand, the "hypothetical average" and the "operational definition," on the other.