M edia image

16.2%

N = 767

source: Snow et al., 1986:414.

As this figure shows, there is a sharp contrast between the media image of the proportion of homeless Americans who are mentally ill and the findings of the study in Austin, Texas. According to media estimates, anywhere from 1/3 to 3/4 of the homeless are mentally ill. However, the Austin data suggest that only 16.2 percent of that city's homeless persons are mentally ill and only 10.8 percent have a history of institutionalization.

have reached a misleading conclusion concerning the effects of mothers' working outside the home. In terms of homelessness and mental illness, age and marital status may have an important in­fluence on whether a person comes to the atten­tion of an agency and is subsequently diagnosed as mentally ill. Socially isolated people, such as single persons and the elderly, may be less likely

to be dealt with in "private" by family or friends. However, when the Austin, Texas, sample was examined for such factors, comparisons between the mentally ill homeless, the nonimpaired home­less, and the state's hospitalized population were not found to be dramatically different in terms of age or marital status.

The findings of the Austin study can be ex­pected to contribute to the questioning of the presumed relationship between homelessness and mental illness. Indeed, the researchers con­clude that the typical homeless person is a "psy-chiatrically non-impaired individual trapped in a cycle of low-paying, dead-end jobs which fail to provide the financial wherewithal to get off and stay off the streets" (Snow et al., 1986:421). With this finding in mind, greater attention may be given to the structural problems of society that contribute to homelessness, including unemploy­ment and the inadequate supply of low-cost hous­ing. While Snow and his colleagues may have undertaken this research study as basic sociologi­cal inquiry, the implications are evident for ap­plied sociology. If the homeless are not typically mentally dysfunctional—if they are merely trapped in economic conditions that lead to pov­erty and despair—then policymakers must begin to address the issue of homelessness in a very dif­ferent manner.

An in-depth study of homeless families by soci­ologist Kay Young McChesney, director of the Homeless Families Project at the University of Southern California, generated similar findings. McChesney and her research team interviewed 87 mothers of children under the age of 18 who were temporarily living in five Los Angeles County shelters. "These women are not crazy," says McChesney; "they aren't substance abusers, either." Instead, she argues that the primary cause of contemporary homelessness is the des­perate shortage of reasonably priced housing. "More low-cost housing must be provided," she concludes, "if we are to stem the rising tide of homelessness" (Society, 1987:4).

In Summary: Scientific Method

Let us briefly summarize the process of scientific method through a review of the example. The researchers defined a problem (the relationship be­tween homelessness and mental illness). They re-

PART ONE ♦ THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

viewed the literature (other studies of the presence of mental illness among the homeless) and formu­lated a hypothesis ("Most homeless persons are not mentally ill"). Snow and his colleagues then ad­dressed the issue of creating an appropriate sam­ple of homeless persons in Austin, Texas. They collected the data and analyzed the data. Finally, they developed the conclusion: the typical homeless per­son is likely not to have a history of mental illness. Thus, through the systematic, organized applica­tion of scientific method, these researchers stud­ied a contemporary social issue and generated meaningful findings of interest to sociologists, mental health workers, and policymakers.

RESEARCH DESIGNS FOR COLLECTING DATA

An important aspect of sociological research is the decision as to how data should be collected. A research design is a detailed plan or method for obtaining data scientifically. Selection of a re­search design is a critical step for sociologists and requires creativity and ingenuity. This choice will directly influence both the cost of the project and the amount of time needed to collect the results of the research.

Sociologists regularly use experiments, partici-

pant observations, surveys, and unobtrusive tech­niques to generate data for their research.

Experiments

When sociologists wish to study a possible cause-and-effect relationship, they may conduct experi­ments. An experiment is an artificially created sit­uation which allows the researcher to manipulate variables and introduce control variables.

In the classic method of conducting an experi­ment, two groups of people are selected and com­pared for similar characteristics such as age or education. The subjects are then assigned by re­searchers to one of two groups—the experimen­tal or control group. The experimental group is exposed to an independent variable; the control group is not. Thus, if scientists were testing a new type of antibiotic drug, they would administer in­jections of that drug to an experimental group but not to a control group.

In response to rising concern about how to deal with the increased incidence of family violence, sociologists Lawrence Sherman and Richard Berk (1984) developed an experiment with the Minne­apolis police department to evaluate the desirabil­ity of three different responses by the police. Of­ficers called to the scene of a misdemeanor domestic assault were randomly instructed to

CHAPTER TWO ♦ METHODS OF SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Here, police are questioning a woman who has been the victim of domestic violence. Preliminary studies, such as an experiment conducted in Minneapolis, suggest that suspects who are arrested in domestic violence cases are less likely to be involved in such violence at a later date than suspects who are merely separated from the residence or offered counseling and mediation.

take one of the following actions: (1) arrest the alleged offender, (2) make the alleged offender leave the residence, thereby separating him or her from the person who had been attacked or threatened, or (3) offer some form of advice, counseling, or mediation. The researchers took a number of precautions and verified that the po­lice actually handled cases in a way called for by their experimental design. This sociological ex­periment did not have a control group, since the purpose was to determine which of the three al­ternative procedures would be most effective in deterring future domestic violence.

Sherman and Berk used two methods to estab­lish which of the three responses by the police was most effective. They checked police records for six months to see if a suspect's name appeared again in a case of domestic violence and also in­terviewed the original victims by telephone over a six-month period to learn if there had been a re­peat incident involving the same alleged of­fender. The clearest finding of this experimental study was that suspects who were arrested in domestic violence cases were less likely to be in­volved in such violence at a later date than sus­pects who were merely separated from the resi­dence or offered counseling and mediation. Suspects who had been arrested and temporarily jailed (usually for less than a week) were less likely to appear on police records over the next six months; when interviewed, the victims of their

original violence were less likely to report repeat incidents. Overall, jailing of a suspect was associ­ated with half as many follow-up cases of domes­tic violence as the other types of response were. Although there is need for further study of this subject, the use of an experiment led to dramatic results with practical applications.

Clearly, it is impossible for sociologists to ob­serve the behavior of all police officers handling cases of domestic violence. Yet such experiments can still be valuable, because they place "com-monsense" generalizations in a more proper con­text. Conducting sociological research is more difficult, and therefore more costly, in the field than in a laboratory setting (often on a college campus). Consequently, researchers sometimes must rely on samples composed entirely of col­lege students. Such participants may or may not be representative of the larger American public. There is an additional problem in using a labora­tory setting: the responses of subjects in such set­tings may be different from people's responses in less-structured, real-life situations.