ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that research emphases have swung so far toward technique that substance has been largely ignored. It discusses some of the generic problems inherent in conceptualization and utilizes some specific problems are important to criminology and criminal justice. Social class is virtually endemic to criminological theory either explicitly or implicitly. Social class began as a sociological construct measured by triangulated variables. Most social scientists have taken the approach that scientific objectivity is at its best when data observations are expressed in a quantitative fashion. Hubert Blalock has noted that sociology and political science have failed to pay attention to conceptualization and measurement to the same degree that economics and psychology have. He attributes this to an inability to experiment with social structures, the complexity of the subject matter, a lack of resources, and the problems associated with indirect measurement.
