ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the concept of theoretical description is problematic. It can be interpreted in several ways, all of which raise difficult questions. The chapter explains that ethnographers' adoption of the goal of theoretical description has led to a fundamental misconception about the nature of the descriptions and explanations they produce. It also examines each aspect of this dual goal of ethnography in turn. In fact, though, neither of the ethnographic approaches to theory development involves an effective implementation of the hypothetico-deductive method. While ethnography places great emphasis on description, it claims to offer a distinctive kind of description: theoretical description. In the field of deviance the compliment has been returned, with criticisms of interactionist ethnographers' preoccupations with 'nuts, sluts, and perverts', and the distorted picture of crime that this has produced. The chapter concludes that the goals of ethnographic analysis need rethinking, and that some major changes may be required in the precepts and practices of ethnographic researchers.
