CRM 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Thomas Kuhn, Juvenile Delinquency, Nomothetic
12 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Criminology - scientific approach to the study of crime. Includes: making and breaking of laws, reacting towards the breaking of laws. Idiographic explanation - when we attempt to explain a single situation exhaustively. Fully understand the causes of what happened in the particular instance. E. g. infiltrate a juvenile gang in order to understand the inner-workings of the gang, rivalries, criminal engagement, rituals, etc. Nomothetic explanation - seeks to explain a class of situations or events rather than a single one. E. g. seeking to explain factors which lead to juvenile delinquency in general. Deductive reasoning - moves from the general to the specific. From a logically or theoretically expected pattern to the observations that test the existence of the pattern. Theory that talking out concepts with others helps one do better on exams is tested by studying with a group and talking out concepts and seeing how you do on the exam.
