Flexibility in variable operationalization in social disorganization theory
A pilot study
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9680176 |
|---|---|
| Authors | K Ryan Proctor (0000-0002-0540-3509, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology University of Missouri‐Kansas City Kansas City Missouri United States, corresponding author), Sarah R Bostrom (0000-0001-6527-5978, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership United States Air Force Academy Colorado Springs Colorado United States), Caitlin S Ducate (0000-0001-7711-5314, Department of Criminology and Political Science Texas A&M University–San Antonio San Antonio Texas United States), Richard E Niemeyer (0000-0002-1058-253X, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership United States Air Force Academy Colorado Springs Colorado United States) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Criminology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-1384 • E-ISSN: 1745-9125 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1745-9125.70018 |
| OpenAlex | W7115683642 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 52 |
Over the past decade, researchers have worked to uncover methodological and theoretical factors related to the replication crisis present in many scientific fields, including criminology. This work reveals that excessive theoretical flexibility, a consequence of ambiguity in scientific concepts, undermines methodological rigor by failing to constrain how concepts are operationalized. Recently, Niemeyer et al. (2022) estimated how broadly defined theoretical and methodological shortcomings in other fields might similarly impact criminology's false‐positive rate. They found up to 90% of the discipline's published findings might be false positives, raising concerns about research reliability in the field. This article extends Niemeyer et al. (2022) by examining whether conceptual ambiguity in criminology facilitates flexible operationalization. We investigated the operationalizations of key theoretical constructs in social disorganization and calculated indices of qualitative variation (IQVs) to determine the levels of flexibility in their operationalizations. Our analysis revealed high IQV values (0.583–0.978) for constructs like poverty, racial and ethnic heterogeneity, and residential stability. These findings suggest that unacknowledged conceptual ambiguity may contribute to a reproducibility crisis in criminology. We discuss the implications of this flexibility for social disorganization theory and broader replication efforts
Ambiguity · Conceptual framework · Empirical research · Flexibility (engineering · Operationalization · Reliability (semiconductor · Replication (statistics · Variation (astronomy · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Mental Health Research Topics
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |