| The social constructionsit perspective has been applied to a variety of subjects within the discipline: hate crimes, child abuse, serial murder, deviance and police corruption. The primary premise behind social constructionism is that social problems are created through a process of claims making by interested claims makers. This paper makes the argument that the nature of scientific debate is no different from any other type of social problem creation/construction. Some claims are discarded while others are accepted and disseminated. This paper looks at some of the critical debates within criminology to make this point. |
Updated 05/20/2006