Advances in New Mechanistic Criminology: Contending with Complexity in the Social World

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

A major challenge in explaining criminal behavior is that it is a multilevel phenomenon that is not well characterized using weak nomological and statistical approaches to science. This thematic panel explicitly addresses this shortcoming by demonstrating how a mechanistic approach to science can resolve this issue. The papers in this panel review the use of the term ‘mechanism’ in criminology, demonstrate its relevance to the recent credibility crisis in the field, and discuss how traditional approaches to integrating biology into criminology should be abandoned in favor of a mechanistic approach involving mechanistic scaffolding.

Sub Unit

• Area II. Perspectives on Crime / 1. Biological, Bio-social, and Psychological Perspectives

Individual Presentations

• Mechanisms in Criminology - Sarah R. Bostrom, AIMS/USAFA; K. Ryan Proctor, AIMS/USAFA; Richard E. Niemeyer, USAFA/WERC

• Why RCTs Fail? A New Mechanical Response to Stevenson - Christopher M. Campbell, Portland State University; K. Ryan Proctor, AIMS/USAFA; Richard E. Niemeyer, USAFA/WERC

• Three Approaches to Integrating Biological and Social Phenomena in Criminology - K. Ryan Proctor, AIMS/USAFA; Richard E. Niemeyer, USAFA/WERC; Sarah R. Bostrom, AIMS/USAFA

Organized by a Division or external group?

Athena Institute for Mechanistic Science