SOCIAL SCIENCE FOR SOCIAL CONTROL by feanie Wylie
Wylie, Jeanie
Social science for social control A study nearing completion at the University of Michigan shows the ways in which the social sciences, no less than the physical sciences and mathematics, can be...
...People connected with the study obviously hold various opinions of how the information gleaned should be used...
...It has a life of its own...
...it becomes a general social science research project...
...Although the LEAA itself was phased out by the Carter Administration, the Michigan research project continued under the auspices of the National Institute of Justice, which expects to receive the findings in June...
...University of Michigan professors and the LEAA want to cloak the project in the objective appearance of a study," he said...
...Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) offered a $300,000 grant for a study of "collective disorders...
...They were told, in letters sent out during the summer of 1980, that the University was interested in evaluating "the effectiveness of specific actions in the expression of issues and grievances...
...Know the goals, strategy, and tactics of their organizations, the numbers of members, the level of their funding, and the sources of their funding...
...After being promised that their names would be kept confidential, many provided the requested information...
...I've been uneasy, very uneasy," said Charles Tilly, a sociology professor...
...University of Michigan graduate Jeff Alson agrees...
...Instead of inhibiting social protest, he says, the study will help legal demonstrations remain peaceful...
...Although the interviewers had been cautioned not to ask, they were told to record each activist's sex and race...
...But if the names of those surveyed were protected, the age, occupation, marital status, and number of children of each was carefully noted...
...The project's chief investigator, Lewis Ferman, says "great pains" have been taken to disguise the information, and promises to be "very, very careful that the data don't fall into the wrong hands...
...Of the six institutions that responded to the LEAA's request, the University of Michigan's Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations (ILIR) was selected...
...In 1978, the U.S...
...Ferman, however, sees different uses for his work...
...But my perception, knowing LEAA, is that it will be used to understand why protests take place and that knowledge will be used to suppress social and political dissent...
...Know their faces, addresses, cars, telephone numbers," the guidelines instructed...
...Activists in Detroit who were approached by the researchers included fast-food workers trying to organize, May Day demonstrators, Chrysler employes who had vandalized an assembly line when they learned they were to be laid off, and Iranian demonstrators...
...Will the new study at Michigan bear similar fruit...
...She added that although there would be legal problems, it would be ideal to put "limitations on the media" so the press would not help "escalate the situation into violence...
...University of Michigan sociology professor William Gamson, who sits on the study's advisory panel, points out that there is no way of ensuring that any one view will prevail...
...There's no way we can really monitor the project," Gamson said...
...Social science for social control A study nearing completion at the University of Michigan shows the ways in which the social sciences, no less than the physical sciences and mathematics, can be used by Government for potentially devious ends...
...Lois Mock, the study's coordinator at the National Institute of Justice, said the Justice Department does not expect the study to generate guidelines for the police, but she revealed some other disturbing possibilities...
...Although many members of the 100 activist organizations contacted nationwide found the researchers sympathetic and sensitive to the civil liberties problems the study posed, none of the...
...Alson's misgivings were underscored when he learned that a similar 1973 study resulted in guidelines to police intelligence units recommending that police collect the names of all activist organizations and their leaders...
...There's no question that there's a chance that what you will learn will be more valuable to law enforcement authorities than to those who want to open political processes...
...And while he, too, hopes some good will come out of the study, he says, "I'd feel more comfortable about [the study] if it were not sponsored by an agency whose mission is social control...
...She suggested that cities might require groups to state their purpose and estimate attendance at rallies before issuing permits...
...In addition, interviewees were encouraged to discuss the structure, recruitment methods, internal communications sytems, and long-term objectives of their organizations...
...activists were told initially that the project was sponsored by the Justice Department...
...In its request for proposals, the LEAA, an agency known for the billions it spent to outfit local police units with military hardware, said the information elicited from police agencies, dissidents, and reporters would be used by the Justice Department to "prevent and control" civil disturbances that might harm property or lives...
...The study might help cities formulate ordinances to regulate protest, she said, "so that people can't just go call a demonstration...
...Jeanie Wylie (Jeanie Wylie is a free-lance writer in Detroit...
...But a member of the ILIR study's advisory panel has expressed reservations about use of the data...
Vol. 45 • June 1981 • No. 6
