Violence and the Politics of Research the HASTINGS CENTER SERIES in ETHICS

Violence and the Politics of Research THE HASTINGS CENTER SERIES IN ETHICS ETHICS TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION EdIted by Daniel Callahan and 5155elll Bok MENTAL RETARDATION AND STERILIZATION A Problem of Competency and Paternalism Edited by Ruth Macklm lind WIllard Gllylm THE ROOTS OF ETHICS: Science, Religion, and Values EdIted by Damel Call1lhan and H. TrIStram Engelhllrdt, Jr. ETHICS IN HARD TIMES Edited by Arthur L. Caplan and Damel Callahan VIOLENCE AND THE POLITICS OF RESEARCH EdIted by Wlllllrd Gaylm, Ruth Mackhn, and Tabltlm M. Powledge WHO SPEAKS FOR THE CHILD: The Problems of Proxy Consent EdIted by Wdlard Gllylm and Ruth Mllcklm A Continuahon Order Plan IS available for thIS senes A conhnuahon order will bnng delIvery of each new volume ImmedIately upon publication Volumes are billed only upon actual shIpment For further mformahon please contact the publisher Violence and the Politics of Research Edited by Willard Gaylln The Hastings Center Hastings-an-Hudson, New York Ruth Macklin Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, New York and Tabitha M. Powledge Center for Science and Technology Policy New York University New York, New York PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK AND LONDON Library of Congress CatalogIng in Publication Data MaIn entry under title' Violence and the politics of research (The Hastings Center series In ethics) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1 VlOlence-Research-Umted States-Addresses. essays, lectures 2 Aggres· siveness (Psychology)-Addresses, essays, lectures 3. VIOlence-United States Case studies-Addresses, essays, lectures I CaylIn, Willard II MacklIn, Ruth, 1938· . III. Powledge, Tabitha M IV Series. HN90 V5V535 303.6'2 81·15900 ISBN 978-1-4684-4021-8 ISBN 978-1-4684-4019-5 (eBook) AACR2 DOl 10.1007/978-1-4684-4019-5 © 1981 The Hastings Center Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981 Institute of Society, EthICS and the Life SCiences 360 Broadway Hastings·on·Hudson, New York 10706 1981 Plenum Press, New York A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation 233 Spring Street, New York, N Y 10013 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored In a retrIeval system, or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic, mechamcal. photocopYIng, mICrofilmIng, recordIng, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher Contributors EDITORS Willard Gaylin, M.D., is clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as cofounder and president since its inception of The Hastings Center, Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sci ences. He has been involved in questions of jurisprudence over the past twenty years, and has written several books, including In the Service of Their Country: War Resisters in Prison (Viking, 1970), Partial Justice: A Study of Bias in Sentencing (Alfred A. Knopf, 1974), and (with J. Meister and R. Neville) Operating on the Mind: The Psychosurgery Conflict (Basic Books, 1975). Ruth Macklin, Ph.D., is a philosopher in the Department of Community Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. At the time the project from which this book emerged was carried out she was codirector, with Willard Caylin, of the Behavioral Studies Research Croup at The Hastings Center. She has contributed articles to professional journals in phi losophy, psychiatry, law, and medical ethics. Her book, Mart, v vi CONTRIBUTORS Mind, and Morality: The Ethics of Behavior Control, was pub lished by Prentice-Hall in 1981. She is one of the editors of Moral Problems in Medicine (Prentice-Hall, 1976), a widely used text in medical ethics. Tabitha M. Powledge is a writer who is interested in the relationship between biology and politics. She has specialized in genetics and genetic policy, and her book on that subject, The Last Taboo, will be published by Houghton-Mifflin in 1982. She currently directs the project on the ethics of genetic en gineering at the Center of Science and Technology Policy, New York, New York. At the time this volume was in prep aration she was Associate for Biosocial Studies at The Hastings Center and a member of the center's Behavioral Studies Re search Group. The author of scores of articles in lay and professional publications, she has taught at Yale, lectured widely to professional and general audiences, and has served as consultant to private groups and government agencies, among them the International Society for Research on Aggres sion. OTHER CONTRIBUTORS Ronald Bayer, Ph.D., is a political scientist and Associate for Policy Studies at The Hastings Center. He has published a number of articles on social policy and heroin use and is the author of Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis (Basic Books, 1981). John P. Conrad is a career criminologist, most of whose career was spent in various capacities in the California Department of Corrections, in which he served for twenty years. Since leaving that agency in 1967, Conrad has served in the United States Bureau of Prisons as chief of research, in the Law En forcement Assistance Administration, and as senior fellow in criminal justice at the Academy for Contemporary Problems. CONTRIBUTORS vii He is now a senior staff member of the American Justice Institute of Sacramento. Dorothy Nelkin is a professor in the Program of Science, Technology and Society and the Department of Sociology at Cornell University. She is also a fellow of The Hastings Cen ter. She is the author of several books on controversies over science and technology including Science Textbook Controversies and the Politics of Equal Time (MIT Press, 1970), Controversy: Politics of Technical Decisions (Sage, 1979), and (with M. Pollak) The Atom Besieged (MIT Press, 1980). T. M. Scanlon, professor of philosophy at Princeton Univer sity, is the author of articles on political philosophy, ethical theory, and applied ethics. He is also an associate editor of Philosophy and Public Affairs. Judith P. Swazey, Ph.D., is executive director of Medicine in the Public Interest, Inc. and an adjunct professor of sociomed ical sciences at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health. She has been a fellow of The Hastings Center since 1969, and served as its vice-president in 1980. Her major areas of research and writing deal with the history of neu roscience, medical ethics, and social and biomedical aspects of research and therapeutic innovation. Robin M. Williams, Jr., is Henry Scarborough Professor of Social Science at Cornell University. He has served as presi dent and as secretary of the American Sociological Associa tion. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a fellow of The Hastings Center and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among his several books are American Society: A Sociological Interpretation (3rd ed., Alfred A. Knopf, 1970), Strangers Next Door (Prentice-Hall, 1964), and Mutual Accommodation: Ethnic Conflict and Cooperation (University of Minnesota Press, 1977). Preface This volume is one outcome of a two-year study conducted by the Behavioral Studies Research Group of The Hastings Center. 1 It is divided into three parts to reflect the several facets of the interdisciplinary project from which it stems. In the opening chapter Willard Gaylin and Ruth Macklin, who di rected the study, describe its basic conception and structure, which centered around three programs to conduct research into aspects of violence and aggressive behavior, programs aborted in the early 1970s because they were politically and IThis project was supported by the EVIST Program of the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 05577-17072, and by a joint award by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any opinions, findings, conclu sions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the National Endowment for the Humanities. Other published outcomes are the edited transcripts of two of the case-study workshops conducted under this project: "Researching Violence: Science, Politics, and Public Contro versy," Special Supplement, The Hastings Center Report 9 (April 1979); and "The XYY Controversy: Researching Violence and Genetics," Special Sup plement, The Hastings Center Report 10 (August 1980). Copies of these tran scripts are available for purchase from The Hastings Center, 360 Broadway, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. ix x PREFACE socially controversial. The chapter includes an account of ear lier work of the Behavioral Studies Research Group that led to the idea for this inquiry into the ethical, social, and political dimensions of scientific research on aggression. Chapter 1 also contains some reflections by the authors on the difficulties of conducting scientific research on violence and aggression in particular, and on socially sensitive topics more generally. Chapter 2, "Legitimate and Illegitimate Uses of Violence: A Review of Ideas and Evidence," provides historical and sociological background to enhance our understanding of three controversies that erupted in the early 1970s over sci entific attempts to study the causes and possible "cures" of violent behavior. This chapter is based on Robin M. Williams, Jr.'s oral presentation to the project group at its first meeting, a presentation designed to acquaint members of the group with social perspectives on violence. Professor Williams fo cuses on the ways in which direct physical violence is legi timated, justified, or otherwise rendered socially acceptable or tolerable. Initially he argues that most violence is not deviant behavior or disapproved conduct, "but virtuous action in the service of applauded values." After a brief summary of con temporary and historical data regarding the incidence, prev alence, and cost of violence, Williams isolates four primary types of cross-cultural social definitions that allow for the"do mestication" or legitimation of violence. The chapter con cludes with a discussion of particular American attitudes to ward violence, and how those attitudes contribute to the acceptance of the legitimating definitions described earlier in the chapter.

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