“Sanctified Snake Oil”: Ideology, Junk Science, and Social Work Practice

Abstract

CHRISTOPHER WREN OBSERVED THAT, "Politicians are said to use statistics the way drunks use lampposts: for support rather than illumination." Recognizing this, "advocacy statistics" have been a staple of groups vying for government attention -and resources -for as long as government has provided such resources. "Advocacy statistics" consist of spurious "data" that support preconceived ideas rather than offering empirical evidence of the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of those ideas. This article will explore domestic violence advocacy statistics in a framework that this author has developed and defined as "sanctified snake oil." "Snake oil" refers to any purported solution to a social problem which is unscientific, has not been adequately tested, is incompletely or inadequately defined, is used inappropriately, or stands in the way of a superior alternative. Snake oil becomes "sanctified" when it is funded, mandated, or otherwise endorsed or accepted by a government entity. This suggests that it is effective, even though government requires no proof of effectiveness when it funds or mandates services; nor does it require proof of effectiveness of the orientations or methods of expert witnesses used to determine the guilt of criminal defendants, the removal of children from their parents, and a host of other critical decisions that profoundly affect people's lives and are core roles of social work practitioners. It is facilitated

Adoption, Family Ideology, and Social Stigma: Bias in Community Attitudes, Adoption Research, and Practice

“…The social work community is characterized by a split between those who argue that applied social work is (and should be) based primarily on scientific knowledge and those who argue that applied social work is primarily experience-based (Robbins et al, 1999). It has even been argued that ''scientific clinical research has little or no impact on the practitioner'' (Stricker, 1992) and that practitioners instead are guided by their ''practice wisdom'' (Sarnoff, 1999). Yet, in the case of adoption practice, the problem-oriented research approach might in and by itself have contributed to negative or suspicious attitudes toward adoption among adoption professionals.…”

Ethnomethodology for Social Work

“…Similarly, Thyer (2001a,b) argued for the merits of research that solved real world problems against Gomory (2001a,b) who called for theory building through deductive enquiry. Others have examined the problems of ideology in social work (de Montigny, 1995;Robbins et al, 1999;Sarnoff, 1999) suggesting the possibility of non-ideological methods. More recently Dybicz has explored the merits of drawing on 'practice wisdom' as a source of social work knowledge (Dybicz, 2004) while Floersch (2004) and Parton (2000) have distinguished between 'technical-rational knowledge' or 'knowledge in action'.…”

The validity and appropriateness of methods, analyses, and conclusions in Rind et al. (1998): A rebuttal of victimological critique from Ondersma et al. (2001) and Dallam et al. (2001).

“…Moreover, as critics have argued (e.g., Best, 1997; Dineen, 1998; Jenkins, 1998; Sarnoff, 2001), CSA researchers have extensively used broad definitions of CSA that include noncontact experiences. For example, Boney-McCoy and Finkelhor (1995), commenting on the finding that girls in their study with noncontact CSA were symptomatic, stated, This finding highlights the noxious correlates of even interrupted forms of predatory sexual behavior.…”

“…We dispute the backlash classification as inappropriate advocacy rhetoric, based as it is on dubious historical perspective. We add that, contrary to their concern regarding public trust and its effects on therapy, the only legitimate avenue to public trust and sound psychotherapeutic practice is integrity in science (Dineen, 1998; Sarnoff, 2001).…”

“…Sexual victimology, one of several types of victimology to emerge in the wake of the various protest movements in the 1960s and early 1970s, all of which had victimization as a central theme, is a blend of social science, criminology, and victimization-based feminism that advocates social and legal reform (Best, 1997; Schultz, 1980; Sommers, 1995). As with other forms of victimology, sexual victimology holds as a basic tenet that victimization, which is defined in increasingly broad terms, typically produces lasting psychological damage; this view invited the medicalization of victimization, which prompted expansion of therapeutic services that embraced victimological assumptions as a basis for treatment (Best, 1997; Dineen, 1998; Sarnoff, 2001). For victimological therapists, CSA has become an essential component of their view of the cause of psychological maladjustment.…”