The NYPD Took This Dog Into Custody Because His Owner Filmed the Police

[Dill]

(05-21-2023, 10:03 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: The big issue is that none of these assessments can ever meet the sort of rigor needed to claim causal implications. It's just not possible to do so. As a result there are a lot of conflicting data and analyses out there on the effectiveness of these programs. Depending on what agenda you are serving or pushing will determine what you conclude.

Not sure I understand exactly what you mean by the bolded, but if it's a statement of principle I think it is wrong. 

If it were true, then social-scientific research could never "really" show a reliable causal link between highway fatalities and lower drinking age,
or between segregated schools and poorer test scores, or deny such links between, say, marijuana and heroin use, or zero tolerance and school safety. 

I think it quite possible that the "agenda" many researchers "push" is to gain the kind of understanding of social phenomena which makes for
good policy--i.e., policy which accomplishes the goals for which it is implemented. To be taken seriously by other researchers, it must be designed so it can be confirmed or disconfirmed by later/more research, regardless of "agendas."

There certainly are questions which cannot be answered by such research, both in principle and in fact, and it does draw quackery where it affects politics, but I don't see why the effectiveness of policies like Stop-and-Frisk and community policing should fall into those categories, even if research is partial or murky or incomplete at the moment. 

If you are right, then that is indeed good news for those who don't like the results of social research, and assign it all, Limbaugh-style, to the second "Corner of Deceit." There is no justification for publicly funding such research or teaching its results, if it all really just comes down to "opinion" and indoctrination. https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/04/29/the_four_corners_of_deceit_prominent_liberal_social_psychologist_made_it_all_up/