Robert K Merton

The seven criteria for theory evaluation are scope, logical consistency, parsimony, utility, testability, heurism and test of time

Parsimony requires a theory to be stated in the most economical way possible without oversimplifying the phe- nomena of interest This means that the fewer the concepts and propositions needed to fully explicate the phenomena of interest, the better

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Grand theory is a term coined by the American sociologist C Wright Mills in The Sociological Imagination to refer to the form of highly abstract theorizing in which the formal organization and arrangement of concepts takes priority over understanding the social reality

Definitions of key terms for the five basic sociological perspectives – Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Social Action Theory and Postmodernism Definitions of key terms for the five basic sociological perspectives – Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Social Action Theory and Postmodernism

Sociology includes three major theoretical perspectives: the functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective, and the symbolic interactionist perspective (sometimes called the interactionist perspective, or simply the micro view)

According to Durkheim sociology has broadly three principal divisions which he terms as social morphology, social physiology and general sociology

Branches of sociology

• Analytical sociology
• Applied sociology
• Architectural sociology
• Behavioral sociology
• Chinese sociology
• Collective behavior
• Comparative sociology
• Computational sociology

Criminology is generally considered to be one of the many branches of sociology It is the study of many aspects of crime and transgressive behaviour, such as its reasons, forecast, and control

There are three branches within the social structure perspective that seek to explain some of these interconnections between the lower-class and crime:

• Social Disorganization Theory
• Strain Theory
• Cultural Deviance theory

Branches of Criminology

• Criminal Demography- study of the relationship between criminality and population
• Criminal Ecology- the study of relationship between criminality and environment
• Criminal Physical Anthropology- the study of criminality in relation to the physical constitution of man