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27 J. Res. Crime & Delinquency 3 (1990)

handle is hein.journals/jrcd27 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITOR'S COMMENTS This issue displays not only the diversity of theory and research concern- ing crime and delinquency but also the unity underlying the substantive topics as a result of the fundamental philosophical and methodological issues. The first two empirical articles focus on the administration of punish- ment and corrections; however, they examine quite different questions and utilize different units of analysis. Another article contrasts the attitudes of delinquent and nondelinquent youth toward assisting victims of crime, while an opening article challenges a common criminological assumption that valid generalizations about crime and its causes cannot be made across nations and cultures. Though it does not address correctional research directly, this article identifies the themes that underlie all of the pieces in the context of the closely related issues of level of analysis and criminological relativism. In the first article, Leavitt provides an entry into the philosophy of criminology. He examines several versions of relativism in the social sci- ences and the humanities that have had considerable influence on crimino- logical theory and research. Leavitt mounts a strong but, no doubt, contro- versial attack on several arguments against cross-cultural study and against the macrological analysis required by such study. In a time when political terrorism, drug control, and multinational corporate crime have heightened the importance of cross-cultural and transnational research, Leavitt's article may serve as an invitation to types of investigation that have not been frequent nor fared well in the last few decades. In the second article, Gillis and Hagan provide both counterpoint and perhaps unintentional support for Leavitt. These Canadian researchers pro- vide crime-weary readers with a refreshing change as they focus on the positive aspects of self-reported delinquents, and on their loyalty and asser- tiveness in assisting friends and family members who are being victimized. The researchers suggest that delinquents are not so much amoral as differ- ently moral, at least when it comes to helping persons in trouble. Gillis and Hagan themselves provide a micrological analysis, but their comparisons across value perspectives and their call for similar research in other countries are certainly harmonious with Leavitt's theme. In the third article, Michalowski and Pearson report a macrological study of penal policy fluctuation in response to economic variations. They provide tests of two radical, or critical, hypotheses; that incarcerative punishment will from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.

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