# Sociologists Say Experiments Show that Looting, Crime Couldn't Have Been Bad at All

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sociologists-say-experiments-show-that-looting-crime-couldnt-have-been-bad-at-all/321185>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [September 12, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sociologists-say-experiments-show-that-looting-crime-couldnt-have-been-bad-at-all/321185 "2005-09-12T02:43:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sociologists-say-experiments-show-that-looting-crime-couldnt-have-been-bad-at-all/321185/41 "2005-09-28T18:33:58Z")

</div>

Yeah, the quote above belongs to the noted sociologist Paul Feyerabend. :smack:

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sociologists-say-experiments-show-that-looting-crime-couldnt-have-been-bad-at-all/321185/42 "2005-09-28T23:49:49Z")

</div>

> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> That was partially a joke but it was also born out of my own experience. I went to Tulane as did my stepfather. I took Sociology 101 and when I went home for break, I mentioned to my stepfather that I liked the class but the professor seemed like a communist. He said he had one like that 25 years before. Of course, it turned out to be the same guy. The next sociology professor I had was also a communist or at least a radical socialist. These guys weren’t shy about making their views known in class. Most of the other sociology professors I have met have been roughly the same.

So you’re drawing your conclusion based on a sample size of roughly 2? And \* they’re \* the ones practising bad science?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sociologists-say-experiments-show-that-looting-crime-couldnt-have-been-bad-at-all/321185/43 "2005-09-29T01:10:38Z")

</div>

Anyone taking another look at this guy’s work, now that it turns out that things actually _weren’t_ as bad as was being reported?

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sociologists-say-experiments-show-that-looting-crime-couldnt-have-been-bad-at-all/321185.md?page=2)