Social science, social policy, and lethal violence: Looking for upstream solutions - 2003 Presidential address to the Pacific Sociological Association

It is the contention of this article that sociologists should be more involved in social policy discussions because of their deep concern and extensive knowledge about policy-related issues and their broad theoretical and methodological traditions. Recent work by Stockard and O'Brien on changing age distributions in lethal violence is used to illustrate that policy recommendations based on sociological research would be more universalistic and effective than current approaches. If greater involvement in policy discussions were to occur, it would be important to pursue multidisciplinary work, use a nonpartisan approach, increase involvement in meta-analyses and field experiments, and develop collective and systematic ways of translating findings into policy actions.