If I could choose one tool as a social scientist, it would be a simple pen and notebook to observe, record, and theorize the wondrous panorama of social life.  

If I could choose two tools as a social scientist, the first would be a simple pen and notebook to observe, record, and theorize the wondrous panorama of social life. And the second would be a smartphone for interviews and a laptop with the latest data analysis software. 

If I could choose three tools as a social scientist? First, of course, I would take the simple pen and notebook. Second would be the state-of-the-art phone and computer gear. And the third would be a sturdy backpack and good shoes to wander the social world.

Last week, our former university president Mark Yudof quipped that "Americans spend more on potato chips than research - maybe they like the flavor better." We haven't checked Mr. Yudof's math, but his points are well-taken. First, research budgets have been lean, particularly in the social sciences. Second, our research sometimes unearths truths that our leaders and citizens may find distasteful, particularly in the social sciences.

When the news came from Ferguson on November 24th, it was hard to know what to do. Every sociologist and criminologist possesses some pertinent expertise, whether we study violence, law, race, or criminal justice and injustice. But how and when should we engage? The streets were alive with protesters, police officers, and journalists. The President was calling for calm, which was itself a polarizing message.

Many TSP readers are more interested in research findings than the methodologies used to obtain them. But methods are often an important part of the story, such as new experimental studies that provide powerful tools for measuring discrimination. Backstage at TheSocietyPages.org, we're constantly arguing about whether a study's methods are strong enough to support its findings.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that a group of "sex offenders" are registering to vote and plan to run for elected office. I put "sex offenders" in quotations because these voters and office-seekers are not currently under supervision for any crime. Instead, they are "civilly committed," which means that they have either already completed their criminal sentences or, as is the case for over 50 clients, they were never charged as an adult for a sex offense.

Prisoners who can maintain ties to people on the outside tend to do better -- both while they're incarcerated and after they're released. A new Crime and Delinquency article by Joshua Cochran, Daniel Mears, and William Bales, however, shows relatively low rates of visitation. The study was based on a cohort of prisoners admitted into and released from Florida prisons from November 2000 to April 2002.
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It takes courage to tell a big audience of strangers how your picture somehow ended up next to the headline "Drug Bust Nets Large Haul: Police Find Cocaine, Methamphetamine, and Viagra." The excellent Life of the Law podcast team brought a series of such painfully honest and powerful stories to the stage this summer. These two are my favorites, from two outstanding young scholars and friends.

Shock, frustration, and rage. That's our reaction to the hate-filled video record that Elliot Rodger left behind. The 22-year-old, believed to have killed 6 people in Santa Barbara last night, left behind a terrible internet trail.

I cannot and will not speculate about the "mind of the killer" in such cases, but I can offer a little perspective on the nature and social context of these acts.

Oh sure, it is much easier to get your music online. And it is much cheaper to obtain it via "sharing," to borrow the kids' charming euphemism, rather than "paying." But neither experience can match the unexpected delight of holding a treasured obscurity in a real record store. And if said obscurity remains in good condition, it can fill your home with a sound that warms and glows like an actual log on an actual fire.
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A promising student recently told me that s/he found drugs and alcohol "necessary" to do really creative work. "That's bovine excrement," I explained (though a bit more emphatically and not exactly in those words). 

Elaborating, I suggested that any short-run benefits to such a strategy quickly morph into much larger long-run liabilities.
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