Abstract
Even patently untrue assertions, especially those that are ideologically appealing, if accepted as valid among certain circles, need to be falsified. But before empirical falsification comes conceptual clarification. “Define your terms”, said Voltaire, in the Dictionnaire Philosophique (1764), “or we shall never understand one another”. In 2007, then President Bill Clinton took Voltaire’s warning to heart by brilliantly ducking a question about his sexual indiscretions with a White House aide. “It depends”, he replied jesuitically, “on what the meaning of is is”. Such definitional evasions aside, before we investigate a given sphere of inquiry, we need to delineate and define the concepts we use. This admonition applies to no endeavor more forcefully than investigating the “death of deviance” claim.
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© 2014 Erich Goode
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Goode, E. (2014). The Meaning and Validity of the Death of Deviance Claim. In: The Death and Resurrection of Deviance. Critical Criminological Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137303806_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137303806_2
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