ABSTRACT
It is fair to assume that many, if not most, members of the general public view social scientific theories such as those presented throughout this book as simply academic products of “impractical mental gymnastics” or “fanciful ideas that have little to do with what truly motivates people” (Akers, 1997:1). For example, in the late 1990s, Walter DeKeseredy was interviewed about women’s use of violence in dating relationships by a neoconservative radio talk show host in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. DeKeseredy offered what he considered to be a highly intelligible, theoretically informed account for this behavior,1 but the radio host deemed his explanation to be little more than “psychobabble.” Like one of the detectives in the once famous fictional television show Dragnet,2 he wanted DeKeseredy to give him “just the facts.” Well, “facts” or data do not speak for themselves; they must be interpreted (Curran & Renzetti, 2001). As stated in Chapter 2, theories help us achieve this goal. Theories are, then, “things we think with” (Smith, 1996). Again, they are conceptual tools that help us make sense of data and assist us in our attempts to understand the ways in which the social world functions (MacLean & Milovanovic, 1997).
