When All You Have is a Hammer: A Comment on “Normativity is not a replacement for theory”
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Rubin (2025) argues that activism-motivated scholars caused the decline of theory in punishment studies, with implications for social science more generally. The evidence is weak, the assumptions are unfounded, and the logic is flawed. Rubin’s theory fails on its own terms: The article includes a long discussion of grievances but provides no new insights about the decline of theory in punishment studies or elsewhere.
