Weighing the Evidence: A new method for research on restricted information

Greatly increased concern about the confidentiality of social records now jeopardizes the ability of social scientists to conduct research. A new confidential method is described that can facilitate the work of the researcher and also maintain the privacy of the researched. This method is called Weighing the Evidence or, more simply, the WEIGHT method. The WEIGHT method groups social records according to intervals of interest to the researcher and then uses a simple weighing procedure to estimate the incidence and distribution of cases. Two studies—one using simulated data and one using real data on handgun purchases—suggest that the WEIGHT method is characterized by high levels of both reliability and validity. Ten hypothetical cases are described in which the WEIGHT method would make possible research that would other wise be prevented by the confidential nature of the data involved.This project was assisted by a fellowship from the German Marshall Fund. The authors are indebted to the following people for helpful comments and advice: Donald T. Campbell, Elliot Aronson, Meredith Gould, David Harrington, John I. Kitsuse, Thomas F. Pettigrew, Alan Ritch, Robert Rosenthal, M. Brewster Smith, and Candace West.     

Social Order through a Prism: Color as Collective Representation

Although color has rarely been examined as a sociological topic, the meaning of color is linked to numerous social domains and serves as a collective representation. Color contributes to social meanings in institutional orders, stratification systems, and identity. While color has some meaning separate from its linkage to particular objects, in most cases colors are situated. We perceive not color, but colored objects. Any given color has multiple meanings that are understood in context. Through our examination of a range of domains in which color has social significance, we suggest that the examination of this field has considerable promise. We conclude by linking the analysis of color to the model of cultural formation suggested by Schudson (1989), focusing on retrievability, rhetorical force, resonance, institutional retention, and resolution.     

Meaningful Voices: How Psychologists, Speaking as Psychologists, Can Inform Social Policy

Kitzinger and Wilkinson (2004) posit that social advocacy can be argued for within both a discourse of equal rights and a discourse of mental health. They suggest that psychological evidence, because it is bound to a discourse of mental health, is currently not useful in advancing the campaigns for equal marriage rights. In our response to their argument, we (1) agree that the currently available psychological evidence is limited; (2) make the case that it is still important for psychologists to produce evidence that speaks to this debate; and (3) suggest how psychologists, still speaking as psychologists, can produce evidence that speaks to this debate through underutilized theoretical and methodological approaches to relevant issues. The authors analyze a key statement by United States President George W. Bush on the meaning of marriage and the available psychological literature on same-sex relationships to support their position.     

Family group conferences: context,process and ways forward

This is the first part of a two‐part review of the literature, policy and practice relating to family group conferences (FGCs). This first paper explores the background, the global policy context, the theoretical foundations and the process of undertaking FGCs. The literature is extensive in relation to these elements of FGCs, unlike the limited literature relating to outcomes, which is examined in the second part of this review. In the subsequent review, we examine the issue of outcomes, research findings and explore future challenges in implementing FGCs.