ABSTRACT
In this chapter we will look at some recent criminology as a way of illustrating some of the main points made thus far. This is work that is empirical and, at the same time, concerned with moral considerations. The moral features of institutions, actions, and policies are treated as moral features, and not drained of moral content so that—in the positivist sense—only the facts are included in what is studied. Investigation that is not constrained in that way can help explicate important moral phenomena and also show how moral phenomena themselves can have an explanatory role. There can be a fruitful intersection of empirical inquiry and moral philosophy. The claims that have been made regarding normativity were meant to help build a case for that claim, and here at the opening of the chapter I make some remarks about social scientific study of normativity. Then we look more closely at some examples of criminological investigation that explicitly addresses normative and valuative matters.
