American Journal of Criminal Justice V. 1

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1 American J. Crim. Just. 1 (1975-1976)

handle is hein.journals/acnjrlocm1 and id is 1 raw text is:

SOME IMPLICATIONS OF ON-REPOR3ING AND SELF-REPORTING
OF CRIME ON LRIMINAL JUSTICE RESEARCH

by

Reed Adama, Hatod VetteA, and HaAvy AWen

Validity and reliability are issues of fundamental

importance in the interrelationship between data and theory.1

On the one hand, theory directs investigation to particular

areas of inquiry; on the other hand, the validity and reliability

of the data thus obtained have a crucially significant impact

on the formulation and verification of theory. The field of

Criminal Justice is no exception; in fact, the study of crime

provides a particularly salient example of problems which

originate in the ipteraction between theory and the data base.

Despite the variety of methods used to gather data, each

of which has been the subject of considerable attention and

discussion in the literature,2 the process of formulation

and verification of theory demands the researcher's immediate

handling of these problems. Until students of deviance

address themselves to these issues, the etiological study

of crime and delinquency will continue to be characterized

by inferential leaps and ambiguous constructs.

There are at least four major sources of error implicit

in the study of deviance: (1) the formulation of theory;

(2) empirical test of hypotheses gathered from the theory;