1. DOES PREDICTION CONFLICT WITH INDIVIDUALIZATION?
- Author
-
Lawes, Lewis E.
- Subjects
FORECASTING ,SOCIAL sciences ,SOCIAL services ,EXPERIENCE ,SOCIAL workers ,SOCIAL work education ,RESEARCH ,EMOTIONS - Abstract
The article presents comments of the author on the article "Is Prediction Feasible in Social Work? An Inquiry Based Upon a Sociological Study of Parole Records," by Ernest W. Burgess. The author Burgess is to be commended for the painstaking manner in which he has approached the subject matter of his discussion. That one cannot fully concur in the method of his approach nor in his analysis does not detract from the value of his thesis. For it is only through serious study and discussion of crime problems, in all its manifestations, that a factual basis of approach will be achieved. Prediction, in relation to physical science is to my mind, altogether different from that which can possibly be hoped for in the field of social welfare work. In relation to all physical research one is dealing with fixed essentials. The basic elements never vary. What is required is to ascertain the components of the elements and to understand their adaptability. Having attained that basic knowledge, prediction with respect to their influences on the life of man becomes comparatively simple. But when one deals with the problems of social service, in all its aspects, he is confronted with human emotions that will not lend themselves to cold scientific analysis.
- Published
- 1929
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