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 30. Policy Analysis
31. Logic Models
Part VI. General Issues
32. Ethical Issues in Social Work Research
33. Gender, Ethnicity, and Racial Issues
34. International Research
35. Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods
36. Applying for Research Grants
Author Index
Subject Index
About the Editor

8
Preface to the First Edition

Bruce A. Thyer

Welcome to this new Handbook of Social Work Research Methods, a volume specifically written by social workers
for a social work audience interested in learning more about research related to social work practice. Every
chapter has been authored by one or more social workers, most of whom are senior academics with extensive
histories in the worlds of both practice and research. This social work focus is important, given the applied
nature of most of the work and research that we undertake as a separate discipline. Some other social work
research books are simply texts originally written by sociologists for sociology students and then given a
facelift for a social work audience. Others are generalist research texts written by one or more social workers
but that lack the depth possible in an edited handbook such as the present volume, wherein it is possible to
recruit a leading scholar or scholars to write each individual chapter. No one social work researcher (not even
several social work researchers) can legitimately claim extensive expertise in all areas of social work research,
whereas an edited handbook can overcome this all-too-human limitation.

This handbook is organized in a relatively straightforward manner. After an introductory chapter by the
editor, placing the importance of scientific research into its historic and contemporary context, the remainder
of the volume is divided into four major parts. Part I is devoted to quantitative approaches, the type of inquiry
that most readers think of when the word research comes to mind. Introductory chapters present an overview
of these methods of study and introduce topics that are central to most scientific studies-probability theory
and sampling, determining the reliability and validity of measurement methods, how to find suitable
instruments for use in research, and an overview of some statistical methods that are most useful in
quantitative investigations. These introductory chapters are followed by individual chapters authored by expert
researchers presenting information about the various types of quantitative studies, descriptive studies, surveys,
needs assessments, single-systems designs, randomized controlled trials, program evaluations, and cost →
procedure → process → outcome → analysis.

Part II deals with qualitative approaches to scientific research in contrast to quantitative studies, in which
many data are presented in the form of numbers; in qualitative inquiry, data and evidence are justified using
words alone and often lack the numerical focus of quantitative methods. As noted, qualitative studies always
have been an important part of mainstream science, from the beginnings of social work to the present. In fact,
there currently is a resurgence of interest in qualitative methods as applied to social work research. Both
quantitative and qualitative methods share an interest in obtaining reliable and valid information, and the first
chapter in this part is followed by a chapter dealing with a description of the qualitative approach to justifying
research evidence. These two introductory chapters are followed by five chapters that present specific methods
of qualitative research: narrative case studies, in-depth interviews, ethnographic research methods, participant
observations, and grounded theory. Each of these is an important tool that social work researchers may use for
specific purposes. Each has its strengths and limitations, as outlined by some of the foremost qualitative
researchers to be found within contemporary social work.

9
Part III presents four chapters on different forms of conceptual research, approaches to inquiry that might not
fit into either the quantitative or qualitative category—studies on theory development, historical research,
literature reviews, and critical analyses. Depending on its slant, an individual study using these methods may
be more closely aligned with either quantitative or qualitative research methods. For example, a historical
study may be very quantitative in nature (e.g., Almgren, Kemp, & Eisinger, 2000), aimed at presenting
historical “facts” as accurately as possible, perhaps using archival statistical data, or it may be more oriented to
an examination of the perceptions of people who experienced a particular historic event and have diaries,
newspaper articles, and journal editorials as its primary data sources (e.g., Knupfer, 1999). Similarly, reviews
of the literature may involve a focus on aggregating statistical findings across studies (e.g., Gorey, Thyer, &
Pawluck, 1998) or may present a narrative summary of the authors’ impressions of an array of research studies
(e.g., Stubbs & Bozarth, 1994). Each approach has its merits and limitations. The type of research labeled
theory development may be purely conceptual in nature or may involve a presentation of empirical research
studies supportive or disconfirming of a particular theoretical model.

Part IV presents chapters that deal with more general issues—ethical factors in social work research; the
significance of gender, ethnicity, and race variables; comparative international research; the value of
integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches to research; applying for research grants; and disseminating
research findings. Each of these is important to the research process. Increasingly, social work research is
being funded through competitively awarded, externally funded grants. The most sophisticated researcher in
the world who cannot obtain needed funding to undertake important studies will be seriously disadvantaged.
Social work must be grounded in a thorough knowledge of ethical principles and governed accordingly.
During recent years, the research programs of entire universities have been temporarily halted by the federal
government, pending the correction of internal review mechanisms established for the protection of human
subjects. Pity the poor academic social work researcher whose eagerness to collect data prior to obtaining
approval from his or her university's human subjects institutional review board results in a shutdown of all
university-conducted research by the federal government. Obviously, research findings must be disseminated
to the social work community and to others for such findings to be of value to society. The unpublished
research study might as well not have been conducted. Although dissemination is usually construed to mean
“published in a peer-reviewed, hard-copy journal,” other useful vehicles in which to share research information
include conference presentations, electronic journals, articles in popular media, and teaching. Too often, our
research programs teach social workers how to design and conduct research but fail to teach the intricacies of
how to get published. Fortunately, there are some excellent resources available with which to remedy this
deficit (e.g., B. A. Thyer, 1994).

Together, these four parts provide the reader with a comprehensive overview to major research methods used
in contemporary social work. This handbook joins related volumes published by SAGE Publications,
including The Handbook of Social Work Direct Practice (edited by Allen-Meares & Garvin, 2000), The Handbook
of Social Policy (edited by Midgley, Tracy, & Livermore, 2000), and The Handbook of Social Welfare
Management (edited by Patti, 2000). This comprehensive series promises to be an exceedingly valuable, if not
definitive, compilation of scholarly resources for social work students, academics, and practitioners alike.

10
Keep in mind the applied nature of social work research. Our field is not primarily interested in the
development of theoretical knowledge for knowledge's sake alone; we can leave that to the academic
disciplines. As noted by R. Thyer (1759), “The end of all knowledge is to understand what is fit to be done,
for to know what has been, and what is, and what may be, does but tend to that” (pp. 487–488). As a
practicing profession, our mandate is to provide credible evidence regarding what can be done to help solve
societal and interpersonal problems. To the extent that we adhere to this task, we are carrying out the mission
given to us by society at large and expected of us by our clients.

—Bruce A. Thyer

(2000)

11
References
Allen-Meares P., & Garvin C. (Eds.). (2000). The handbook of social work direct practice. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.

Almgren G., Kemp S. P., & Eisinger A. (2000). The legacy of Hull House and the Children's Bureau in the
American mortality transition. Social Service Review, 74, 1–27.

Gorey K. M., Thyer B. A., & Pawluck D. E. (1998). Differential effectiveness of prevalent social work
practice models: A meta-analysis. Social Work, 43, 269–278.

Knupfer A. M. (1999). Professionalizing probation work in Chicago, 1900–1935. Social Service Review, 73,
478–495.

Midgley J., Tracy M. B., & Livermore M. (Eds.). (2000). The handbook of social policy. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.

Patti R. (Ed.). (2000). The handbook of social welfare management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Stubbs J. P., & Bozarth J. D. (1994). The dodo bird revisited: A qualitative study of psychotherapy efficacy
research. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 3, 109–120.

Thyer B. A. (1994). Successful publishing in scholarly journals. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Thyer R. (Ed.). (1759). Genuine remains in verse and prose of Mr. Samuel Butler. London: J. & R. Tonson.

12
Preface to the Second Edition

Bruce A. Thyer

It has been almost 10 years since the first edition of this Handbook of Social Work Research Methods came out in
2001, and much has transpired within the world of social work research to justify undertaking a major
revision. The handbook's basic structure remains the same—an introduction, a series of chapters dealing with
quantitative research methods, a series of chapters dealing with qualitative approaches to social work research,
and a concluding section dealing with cross-cutting topics, such as research ethics, mixed methods, theoretical
research, and so forth. A number of chapters are completely new, reflecting emerging but important topics
having an impact on social work research, topics such as meta-analysis; systematic reviews; the use of quasi-
experimental designs to evaluate practice, naturalistic studies, oral histories, and participatory action research;
logic models; and historical research.

Other significant developments related to social work research include the expansion of the Society for Social
Work and Research. The organization now serves as an international vehicle for promoting high-quality
scholarship through its conferences, awards, and journals program. Readers unacquainted with this
membership organization should consider joining (www.ssw.org). The Campbell Collaboration (C2) has
emerged as a leading international voice in promoting evidence-based practice through the production of
systematic reviews in the areas of social welfare, criminal justice, and education. More than 50 completed
systematic reviews can now be found on the organization's Web site (www.campbellcollaboration.org), each of
which is a gold mine of up-to-date information on the evidentiary status of psychosocial interventions or
assessment methods. The C2 now has a formal social welfare steering group and editorial board, and the
annual C2 conference is a world-class event. Readers are also encouraged to review the Campbell
Collaboration Web site and to consider ways to get involved—help prepare a systematic review, attend the
annual conference, volunteer for an editorial or leadership role, and so on.

Other developments include a social work Topical Interest Group focused on social work being formed as an
element of the American Evaluation Association, and this thriving organization serves as another positive
nexus for social work research (see http://www.eval.org). Also, the Institute for the Advancement of Social
Work Research (http://www.iaswresearch.org) continues its mission of distributing an e-mailed weekly
newsletter, providing research training, providing information to policy makers, and promoting evidence-
based practice. And in a long-overdue initiative, even the venerable National Association of Social Workers
has established a research section on its Web site (http://www.socialworkers.org/research/default.asp), and it
is taking some tentative steps in embracing evidence-based practice.

The journal I edit, Research on Social Work Practice (RSWP), has entered its 20th year as a SAGE journal. Its
most recent impact factor placed it as the third most cited true social work journal, and it now has more than
5,800 individual and institutional subscribers, making it, to my knowledge, the second most subscribed-to
social work journal in the world. It has more than 150,000 downloads of full articles in PDF format from the
journal's Web site annually, which is another measure of its role in disseminating research knowledge. Most

13
readers will be able to gain free hardcopy or electronic access to the journal via their local university library. If
this is not available, you can obtain a free subscription through joining the Society for Social Work and
Research, which continues to support the journal as a benefit for its members. The journal now has an
electronic submission portal for authors to submit their manuscripts through, shortening the time needed to
undertake blind peer review, and it now offers a publish-ahead-of-print feature, in that as soon as page proofs
have been corrected by an author, the article is posted on the journal's Web site with a citable DOI. This
means that scholars can access and cite an author's work months prior to the appearance of the in-print
publication. This gives RSWP all the benefits of a solely electronic journal while retaining the advantages of an
established print journal, such as being picked up by the major citation and abstracting services (e.g.,
PsycINFO, Web of Science), features most electronic journals lack (see
http://www.sagepub.com/journalsProdDesc.nav?prodId=Journal200896&currTree=Subjects&level1=M00&).

As with all edited books, the lion's share of the intellectual credit for the work is due to the authors of the
individual chapters that comprise it. I am very grateful to each of them for lending their expertise in preparing
a new or revised chapter reflecting contemporary developments in the topic they have addressed. Since no one
scholar, no matter how adept, can be expected to be completely current in all possible research methods, I
believe that an edited volume such as this one, drawing upon the strengths of many social workers, provides
the reader with more accurate and in-depth information than a work authored by only one or two people. As
before, the editing and production staff of SAGE have displayed a consistent commitment to producing a
high-quality work of value to the profession, and I gratefully acknowledge my debt to them in this regard,
particularly to Kassie Graves. This handbook is a much better product because of their diligent efforts.

—Bruce A. Thyer

(2009)

14
Acknowledgments

The Editor of this volume gratefully acknowledges the help and support provided over a number of years by
Kassie Graves, with SAGE Publications. SAGE Publications would like to thank the following reviewers of
this edition:

Kevin L. DeWeaver
University of Georgia
Maria Dinis
California State University, Sacramento
Michael J. Holosko
University of Georgia
Andrew Scharlach
University of California, Berkeley
Bassima Schbley
Washburn University
Cathryne L. Schmitz
Radford University
Julie Schroeder
Fayetteville State University
Michael Wolf-Branigin
George Mason University

15
Chapter 1 Introductory Principles of Social Work Research

Bruce A. Thyer

The scientific approach to unsolved problems is the only one which contains any hope of learning to deal with the unknown.

—Bertha Capen Reynolds (1942, p. 20)

An emphasis on the value of scientific research has always characterized professional social work education
and practice. Indeed, this emphasis is one of the hallmarks that distinguishes genuinely “professional” services
from other forms of private/public philanthropy and charity and the provision of social care motivated by
religious, familial, altruistic, or philosophical reasons. In the history of social work in North America and
Great Britain, as well as in other European nations, the system of poor laws and other relatively unsystematic
attempts to care for the destitute gave rise during the latter part of the 19th century to an orientation labeled
scientific philanthropy. Coincident with the emergence of “friendly visiting,” settlement houses, formalized
academic training, and other precursors to the professionalization of social work, the development of
charitable services guided by a scientific orientation has evolved to the present day.

Social work historian John Graham provides a good case study on a Toronto charity home for women called
The Haven, established in 1878 by religious elites, that gradually made the transition to a more secularly
oriented and professional service. Graham (1992) describes the completion of this transition in 1927 as
follows:

Professional social work, therefore, had been firmly installed at The Haven, and the last vestiges of the
benevolent philanthropy of the nineteenth century were abandoned. A growing sense of professional
identity moreover demanded a strict delineation between the social worker and the social agency
volunteer. Differentiating the former from the latter was a scientific knowledge base and specialized skills
which were the social worker's alone. (p. 304, italics added)

Such a transition can be said to characterize the majority of social work programs across North America by
the early part of the 20th century. Currently, one widely used definition of social work can be found in The
Social Work Dictionary published by the National Association of Social Workers—“the applied science of
helping people achieve an effective level of psychosocial function and effecting societal changes to enhance the
well-being of all people” (Barker, 2003, p. 408, italics added). Many states further define the practice of
clinical social work, and Florida's definition provides a representative example of the inter-connectedness of
social work and science: “The ‘practice of clinical social work’ is defined as the use of scientific and applied
knowledge, theories and methods for the purposes of describing, preventing, evaluating, and treating,
individual, couple, family or group behavior” (Florida Department of Health, 2008, italics added). These
definitions illustrate the close linkage between the practice of social work and the world of scientific inquiry.

Where do we social workers come from organizationally? We have many roots, but a central one was the

16
establishment in 1865 of the American Social Science Association (ASSA), a generalist organization
influenced by French sociologist Auguste Comte's then novel philosophy of science labeled positivism, which
called for the objective study of human society and behavior using the same tools of scientific inquiry that
were proving so successful in the biological and physical sciences. From the ASSA sprouted numerous
offshoots, some of which thrive to this day, although the parent group crumbled in 1909. From the ASSA, in
1879, emerged the Conference of Charities, which in 1884 evolved into the National Conference of Charities
and Correction (NCCC), described as “a forum for the communication of the ideas and values connected with
scientific charity” (Germain, 1970, p. 9). In turn, the NCCC was renamed the National Conference on Social
Work in 1917. This label lasted until 1957, when it was altered to the National Conference on Social
Welfare, which gradually expired during the 1980s.

More recently, in 1994, a small group of social workers led by Janet B. W. Williams established a new
scientifically oriented social work membership organization known as the Society for Social Work and
Research (SSWR). All social workers with an interest in scientific research in social work are eligible to join.
The SSWR quickly grew from 271 members in 1995 to more than 1,300 in 2009, and the organization has an
active newsletter and program of annual international conferences. The first professional SSWR conference
was held in 1995 in Washington, D.C., and has been followed annually since that time with very successful
and high-quality conferences (see www.sswr.org). The SSWR conferences offer a host of competitively
reviewed symposia, papers, and posters; plenary addresses by prominent social work researchers; and an
awards program that recognizes outstanding examples of recently published social work research. Because of
its superb organization and the top quality of its presentations, the SSWR conference has rapidly become the
preferred venue for social work researchers to present their research findings. Moreover, it has become the
conference of choice for schools of social work to seek interviews with potential new faculty and for potential
new faculty to seek academic positions. In 1999, the SSWR began providing its members a subscription to the
bimonthly peer-reviewed journal Research on Social Work Practice, an independent periodical established in
1991. This growth of the SSWR augurs well for the continuing voice of science within mainstream social
work.

A related but independent development was the establishment of the Institute for the Advancement of Social
Work Research (IASWR) in 1993. The mission of the IASWR is to create infrastructure for social work
research, to lead advocacy efforts to fund social work research, to help stakeholders view social work research
as valuable, to provide training and professional development programs for social work researchers, to
persuade social workers to undertake careers in research, to provide a free Web-based research-focused
newsletter, and to promote disciplinary and interdisciplinary research collaboration. Five national professional
social work organizations contributed to the development of the IASWR and are represented on its governing
board. Its original purpose of advocating for the establishment of a federally funded National Center for
Social Work Research failed in the face of fiscal austerity, but the IASWR has expanded its remit as described
above (see http://www.iaswresearch.org/).

Another organizational resource for social work research is the Social Work Topical Interest Group (TIG)
found within the American Evaluation Association (AEA). The AEA has about 5,000 members, and several

17
hundred of these comprise the social work TIG. The AEA holds an annual conference as well as regional
ones, has an active journals program, and provides training and consultation services, and its Web site has a
wealth of useful resources (e.g., locating measurement instruments, how to locate an evaluator; see
http://www.eval.org/aboutus/organization/aboutus.asp).

The National Association of Social Workers is the largest professional social work group in the world, with
about 150,000 members. Almost all are M.S.W. and B.S.W.-level trained professionals, and the organization
primarily serves the needs of its practitioner member base, not those of social work researchers. The NASW
does not host an annual conference but does have one research journal, Social Work Research. A new initiative
is a social work research Web page (see www.socialworkers.org/research/), cosponsored with the IASWR,
which is itself ostensibly independent but is actually housed within the NASW offices in Washington, D.C.

Social work researchers also find welcoming organizational support from various disciplinary (e.g., American
Psychological Association, American Sociological Association, Association for Behavior Analysis) and
interdisciplinary (e.g., American Public Health Association, Association for Advancement of Behavioral and
Cognitive Therapies, American Orthopsychiatric Association, the Gerontological Society of America) groups.
These groups typically have thriving annual conferences, a well-established journals program, and training
opportunities social workers can take advantage of. Thus, both budding and experienced social workers have
ample opportunities to network with research-oriented colleagues both within and outside of the discipline.

18
Scientific Perspectives on Practice
The role of scientific research in social welfare can be seen through many early writings, including an article
titled “Scientific Charity,” presented at the 1889 meeting of the NCCC (cited in Germain, 1970, p. 8), and
one titled “A Scientific Basis for Charity” (Wayland, 1894), which appeared in the influential journal The
Charities Review. Such perspectives culminated in the publication of Richmond's (1917) Social Diagnosis, an
influential text that wholeheartedly extolled the virtues of positivist science. Indeed, in 1921, Richmond
received an honorary M.A. degree from Smith College for “establishing the scientific basis of a new
profession” (cited in Germain, 1970, p. 12).

The possible examples of conference talks, journal articles, chapters, and books illustrating the central reliance
on scientific research as a guiding force within early social work are too numerous to mention further here.
Germain (1970) remains one of the very best reviews of this “ancient” history of our profession. More recent is
the history of the Social Work Research Group (SWRG), a short-lived professional membership organization
established in 1949 that became one of the original seven constituents of the National Association of Social
Workers (NASW) in 1955, transmogrifying itself into the NASW's Research Section. In 1963, this became
the NASW's Council on Social Work Research, where it gradually faded from view by the mid-1960s as the
NASW allowed the research mission established in its bylaws to largely lapse. Graham, Al-Krenawi, and
Bradshaw (2000) have prepared an excellent historical study of the rise and demise of the SWRG.

Coincident with these organizational and policy developments related to the integration of science and social
work during the past quarter century have been three related perspectives on practice. The first is known as
empirical clinical practice (ECP), the second is called empirically supported treatments (ESTs), and the third is
labeled evidence-based practice (EBP). These are reviewed briefly in turn.

19
Empirical Clinical Practice
Empirical clinical practice was the name of a book authored by social workers Siri Jayaratne and Rona Levy
(1979), who describe the characteristics of the ECP model they espouse: “Empirical practice is conducted by
clinicians who strive to measure and demonstrate the effect of their clinical practice by adapting traditional
experimental research techniques to clinical practice” (p. xiii). The authors focus on teaching social workers
the use of relatively simple research methods called single-system research designs to empirically evaluate the
outcomes of their work. They believe that “clinical practice that can empirically demonstrate its effect provides
the basis for the best service to the client” (p. xiv). They contended that ECP can be adopted by practitioners
using virtually any theoretical model of practice so long as it is possible to measure changes in the client, relate
these changes (provisionally) to social work intervention, and then base future services on these observations.
The authors advocate that social workers should rely on previous research to help guide their choices of
interventions that they offer clients. In their words, “The clinician would first be interested in using an
intervention strategy that has been successful in the past…. When established techniques are available, they
should be used, but they should be based on objective evaluation rather than subjective feeling” (p. 7). ECP
involves the careful and repeated measure of client functioning, using reliable and valid measures repeated over
time, combined with selected treatments based on the best available scientific evidence. Their entire book is
devoted to describing how to do these activities. A similar social work text by Wodarski (1981), titled The Role
of Research in Clinical Practice, advocated for much the same thing—a preference to make use of psychosocial
treatments that scientific research had really demonstrated to be of benefit to clients, measuring client
functioning in reliable and valid ways, and empirically evaluating outcomes with individual clients and larger
groups.

The banner of ECP was picked up by a number of subsequent social workers, and a rather large (and not
uncontroversial) literature has grown around these notions (e.g., Corcoran, 1985; Ivanoff, Blythe, & Briar,
1987; Ivanoff, Robinson, & Blythe, 1987; G. MacDonald, 1994; Thyer, 1996). The influence of ECP has not
been inconsiderable. For example, in 1982, just 3 years following the publication of Empirical Clinical Practice
(Jayaratne & Levy, 1979), the curriculum policy statement of the Council on Social Work Education
(CSWE, 1982) included a new mandate that research courses must now teach “designs for the systematic
evaluation of the student's own practice … [and should] prepare them systematically to evaluate their own
practice and contribute to the generation of knowledge for practice” (pp. 10–11). Similar standards still can be
found in the current CSWE guidelines. Insisting that individual practitioners conduct systematic outcome
evaluations of their own services was a remarkable professional standard, one that has not yet been emulated
by educational and practice guidelines within clinical psychology or psychiatry in the present day. Reid (1994)
provides a nice overview of the rise, influence, and dissemination of the ECP movement.

20
Empirically Supported Treatments
Subsequent to the ECP movement within social work, a related initiative developed within clinical psychology
called empirically validated treatments. During the mid-1990s, the president of Section III (Society for a
Science of Clinical Psychology) of Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) of the American Psychological
Association convened a Task Force on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures, a group
charged with two functions: (a) develop a scientifically defensible set of criteria that can be used to determine
whether a given psychological technique can be called empirically validated and (b) conduct comprehensive
reviews of the research literature, apply these criteria, and come up with, in effect, lists of psychological
procedures that fulfill these criteria and, therefore, can be considered, in a scientific sense, empirically
validated.

The evidentiary standards ultimately decided on by the task force were actually rather modest, consisting of
the following criteria:

1. At least two good between-group design experiments demonstrating efficacy in one or more of the
following ways:
1. Superior to pill or psychological placebo or to another treatment
2. Equivalent to an already established treatment in experiments with adequate statistical power
2. A large series of single-case design experiments (N > 9) demonstrating efficacy that must have done the
following:
1. Used good experimental designs
2. Compared the intervention to another treatment (as in I.A.)

Among the further criteria are that the psychological techniques must be based on well-proceduralized
treatment manuals, that the characteristics of the client samples are clearly defined, and that the positive
effects must have been demonstrated by at least two different investigators or investigatory teams. A
psychological treatment meeting the preceding criteria could be said to be well established. A somewhat less
stringent set of criteria could be followed to potentially label a treatment as probably efficacious (Chambless et
al., 1996).

With the criteria in place, the task force busily got to work in seeing which psychological treatments could be
labeled empirically validated and probably efficacious, and reports soon began appearing indicating empirically
validated interventions for a wide array of psychosocial disorders such as depression, panic disorder, pain, and
schizophrenia. As with the ECP movement within social work, the task force within psychology did not
escape controversy. For one thing, the task force recognized that labeling a treatment as empirically validated
seemed to close the discussion off, implying perhaps a stronger level of research evidence than was justified.
Subsequent reports of the task force used the more tempered language of empirically supported treatments
(ESTs). Entire issues of leading professional journals (i.e., a 1996 issue of Clinical Psychology: Science and
Practice, a 1998 issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, a 1998 issue of Psychotherapy Research)
were devoted to the topic, as were considerable independent literatures (e.g., Sanderson & Woody, 1995).

21
The influence of the EST movement also has been strong, and the work of the Division 12 task force was
commented on extremely favorably in Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (Hatcher, 2000). The
volume titled A Guide to Treatments That Work (Nathan & Gorman, 2007), now in its third edition, is an
exemplary resource for social workers seeking relatively current information about empirically supported
treatments for a wide variety of mental health problems. Division 12, Section III (The Society for a Science of
Clinical Psychology) continues its work in defining the criteria and language used to describe empirically
supported treatments and maintains a Web site providing current information on this influential initiative (see
http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/eklonsky-/division12/index.html).

22
Evidence-Based Practice
Coincident with the EST initiatives in clinical psychology have been related activities in medicine labeled
evidence-based practice, defined as “the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of the current best evidence in
making decisions about the care of individual patients” (Sackett, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, 1997, p.
2). On its face, EBP would not seem to be a radical notion, and indeed, most readers would assume that such
a standard already was in place in most of the health professions. Sadly, to a great extent, this is not the case,
although a small but influential group of health care providers is attempting to make it so. EBP and EST
actually are much more sophisticated variants of the earlier ECP model of social work, but the spirit and
intent of all three movements—ECP (developed within social work), EST (developed within psychology),
and EBP (developed within medicine)—are the same. EBP is gradually supplanting the ECP and EST
initiatives within social work and psychology. The current president of the Society for the Science of Clinical
Psychology (a section of Division 12 of the American Psychological Association) published an editorial titled
“Evidence-Based Psychotherapy: A Graduate Course Proposal” (Persons, 1999), and some social workers
have begun using the EBP language, most notably Gambrill (1999) with her thoughtful article titled
“Evidence-Based Practice: An Alternative to Authority-Based Practice,” which introduced EBP to the social
work literature. The past decade has seen the publication of enough social work books on the EBP topic to fill
a bookshelf. The melding of these disciplinary perspectives into an interdisciplinary human services movement
generically called evidence-based practice seems likely. Consider Persons's (1999) description of EBP:

The evidence-based practitioner:

Provides informed consent for treatment

Relies on the efficacy data (especially from RCTs [randomized clinical trials]) when recommending and
selecting and carrying out treatments
Uses the empirical literature to guide decision-making
Uses a systematic, hypothesis-testing approach to the treatment of each case:
○ Begins with careful assessment
○ Sets clear and measurable goals
○ Develops and individualized formulation and a treatment plan based on the formulation
○ Monitors progress toward the goals frequently and modifies or ends treatment as needed (p. 2)

Well, perhaps Jayaratne and Levy (1979) were simply two decades ahead of their time. An issue of the NASW
News contained an article on the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health and noted, “A challenge in the
near term is to speed transfer of new evidence-based treatments and prevention interventions into diverse service
delivery settings and systems” (O'Neill, 2000, p. 6, italics added). The Surgeon General's report itself states
clearly,

Responding to the calls of managed mental health and behavioral health care systems for evidence-based
interventions will have a much needed and discernable impact on practice…. It is essential to expand the

23
 supply of effective, evidence-based services throughout the nation. (Hatcher, 2000, chap. 8, p. 453)

EBP requires knowing what helps social work clients and what does not help them. It requires being able to
distinguish between unverified opinions about psychosocial interventions and facts about their effectiveness.
And separating facts from fictions is what science is pretty good at doing. Not perfectly, and not without false
starts, but the publicly verifiable and potentially testable conclusions of scientific research render this form of
knowledge building an inherently self-correcting one (in the long run), a considerable advantage over other
“ways of knowing.”

EBP differs from its precursor initiatives in that it does not tell social workers what interventions should be
provided to clients. It does not list so-called best practices, create practice guidelines, or develop lists of
supposedly empirically based treatments. Nor does it unduly privilege certain forms of evidence above all
others. Each of the above three sentences represents common misconceptions of EBP. EBP is actually a
process of inquiry offered to practitioners, described for physicians in Straus, Richardson, Galsziou, and
Haynes (2005), but readily adaptable to providers in all of the human service professions. These steps are as
follows (from Straus et al., 2005, pp. 3–4):

Step 1: converting the need for information (about prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, causation,
etc.) into an answerable question.
Step 2: tracking down the best evidence with which to answer that question.
Step 3: critically appraising that evidence for its validity (closeness to the truth), impact (size of the
effect), and applicability (usefulness in our clinical practice).
Step 4: integrating the critical appraisal with our clinical expertise and with our patient's unique biology,
values, and circumstances.
Step 5: Evaluating our effectiveness and efficiency in executing steps 1–4 and seeking ways to improve
them both for next time.

Each chapter in Straus et al. (2005) addresses one of these steps, and they have been adapted for use by social
workers in an excellent series of entries appearing in The Social Worker's Desk Reference (see Roberts, 2009, pp.
1115–1182). EBP states that social workers need to be familiar with the best available evidence addressing the
questions related to client services and to their particular practice situation and to integrate their appraisal of
this information into an assessment of their own skills, the client's preferences, relevant professional and
personal values and ethical standards, cost, feasibility, and resources. All of these factors are relevant, not just
what the research evidence indicates. And by best evidence, what is meant is not so-called gold-standard
studies such as randomized controlled trials or meta-analyses (see later chapters on these topics in this book)
but simply the best available relevant evidence. If there are no studies of superlative quality, then you locate
and assess those of lesser quality. Lots of evidence can go into the mix, including quasi-experimental studies,
single-subject studies, correlational studies, descriptive work, epidemiological evidence, qualitative
investigations, case histories, theory, and informed clinical opinion. There is always evidence for a social
worker to consult, even if it is not evidence of the highest quality. As with ECP, EBP also encourages
practitioners to evaluate the outcomes of their work with individual clients using a research methodology

24
called single-subject designs.

Another option is for social workers to consult systematic reviews (SRs) of the research evidence related to
various answerable questions involving assessment and interventive methods. The two groups most
responsible for preparing high-quality and independent SRs are called the Cochrane Collaboration (see
www.cochrane.org), focusing on issues related to health care, and the Campbell Collaboration (see
www.campbellcollaboration.org), focusing on social welfare, education, and criminal justice. SRs are prepared
by qualified research teams who obtain articles and reports from all over the world dealing with a specific
issue. These reports are minutely analyzed and critiqued and the collected information summarized in a
readable format, with a take-away message something like Treatment X is well-supported as an effective
treatment for clients with Problem Y; The available evidence indicates that Treatment X is ineffective in helping
clients with Problem Y; Clients with Problem Y who receive Treatment X demonstrated impaired outcomes, compared
to clients who receive no treatment. You can see how this information would be of immense value to social
workers. Here is a sampling of SRs currently available on the Cochrane database that is of relevance to social
workers:

Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and

adolescents
Family intervention for bipolar disorder
Family therapy for depression
Psychological debriefing for preventing posttraumatic stress disorder
Psychotherapy for bulimia nervosa and binging
Short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for common mental disorders

And here are some found on the Campbell Collaboration Web site:

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for men who physically abuse their partner

Cognitive-behavioral intervention for children who have been sexually abused
Interventions intended to reduce pregnancy-related outcomes among adolescents
School-based educational programs for the prevention of childhood sexual abuse
Work programs for welfare recipients

These systematic reviews represent the highest quality and up-to-date critical appraisals of the existing
research literature addressing particular psychosocial and health problems experienced by social work clients.
They are a wonderful resource for practitioners seeking such information and are integral to the conduct of
evidence-based practice.

To summarize, ECP suggested that social work treatment should be chosen based on support via randomized
controlled studies and that social workers need to evaluate the outcomes of their practice with clients using
single-system research designs. The EST initiative came up with a list of evidentiary criteria needed to label a
given treatment as “empirically supported.” Once these criteria were in hand, lists of psychosocial
interventions meeting these standards were published. EBP provides more of a process to guide clinical and

25
practice decision making, which explicitly embraces evidence from many sources (albeit urging one to pay
particular attention to evidence of the highest quality) and explicitly includes nonscientific considerations such
as client preferences and values into this decision-making process. In many ways, EBP is a more sophisticated
and mature conceptualization of the conduct of practice than ECP and EST, and these latter two initiatives
largely have been subsumed by EBP.

26
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 FOOTNOTES:

[1] The title of the book is Historia Flagellantium, de

recto & perverso flagrorum usu apud Christianos,
12mo. Parisiis, apud J. Anisson, Typographiæ Regiæ
Præfectum, MDCC.
[2] Our author, who was rather singular in the choice
of his subjects, had written another treatise De tactibus
impudicis prohibendis, and another on the dress of
clergymen, wherein he attempted to prove that they
might as well wear it short as long.
[3] The same manner of writing is also to be met
with in most of the treatises that were written in
England, France, and especially Germany, about an
hundred years ago, or more, when a mechanical
knowledge of Latin and Greek books, and making
compilations from them, was the kind of learning in
vogue.
Page. 351.

T H E

H I S T O R Y
O F T H E

FLAGELLANTS.
 C H A P. I.

The substance of the reasons given by the

Abbé Boileau, for writing his Book. He seems
to have been of opinion that voluntary
flagellations were no very antient practice.

I AM not, I confess, without fear that the design I

have formed of tracing the origin of those
Flagellations which have in process of time been
introduced among Christians, will be looked upon as
a rash undertaking, and that I may be accused of
having, in that respect, fallen into the errors of the
Protestants, whether Lutherans, or Calvinists.
In fact, those two Sects, under pretence of
shewing their obedience to the commands of God,
who orders the Israelites not to make incisions in
their own flesh for the sake of the dead, trample upon
all laws concerning Penitence, extinguish that kind of
virtue which consists in repressing the lustful
appetites of the flesh, and ridicule those
mortifications and penances to which Tertullian
advises us to submit.
 Indeed, I am far from wishing to favour the relaxed
Doctrine of Heretics. That kind of enthusiastic fury
which the Calvinists manifestest, in the last Century,
against the laborious exercises of the Monastic life,
rather heightens, in my opinion, the glory of the
Catholic Church. I think that the manner of the
antient Anchorites of Syria, of Thebaid, and of Egypt,
the purity of their virtue, and the surprising penances
to which they submitted, deserve our utmost
reverence, however impossible it may be for us to
imitate them.
I have no other object in view, on this occasion,
than to bring back those happy times of the primitive
Church, in which the true Science of conquering
lustful appetites flourished among our holy
Forefathers. All I propose to myself, is, to render it
manifest to every candid Reader, that those methods
of doing Penance, which are in our days called
Disciplines[4], were unknown in the happy periods of
the primitive Church. By Disciplines I mean here to
speak of those voluntary Flagellations which
Penitents inflict upon themselves with their own
hands; lashing their own backs, or posteriors, either
with scourges or whips, or willow and birch rods. A
practice this, which, we are not to doubt, prevails
much in the Societies of modern Monks and Nuns,
especially among those who, under pretence of
reformation, have abolished their antient Rules, and
substituted new Constitutions in their stead.
But before I enter upon this subject, I must inform
the Reader of two facts, which it is necessary he
should know, at the same time that they are
undeniable, and confirmed by every day’s practice.
The first is, that Penitents, as we have above-
mentioned, both inflict those Disciplines on
themselves with their own hands, and receive the
same from other persons, either with scourges, or
rods, or whip-cords. The second is, that those
chastisements are inflicted on them, either on the
bare back or shoulders, or on the posteriors: the
former method is usually called the upper, and the
latter, the lower discipline[5].
Now, that this latter kind of Discipline is a
contrivance of modern times, is what I positively
aver. It was unknown, as I shall demonstrate to the
Reader, among the first Christians; and it is moreover
repugnant both to true Piety, and to Modesty, for
several reasons which I shall deduce hereafter. I
propose, besides, to shew that this practice is an
offspring of Idolatry and Superstition; that it ought to
be banished from among Christians as an erroneous
and dangerous exercise; and that it has only been
introduced into the Christian Church by ignorant
persons, under the specious appearance of Piety
and more perfect Mortification.
Painters, it seems, have not a little helped to
establish and strengthen the practices we mention,
by their pictures, of which Pope Gregory the Great
says, in his Epistle to Serenus Bishop of Marseilles,
that they were “the Libraries of ignorant Christians.”
In fact, we see they have never represented any of
the antient Anchorites, without leaving some spare
corner on their canvas, whereupon to place either
whips or rods; instruments of which those holy
Hermits had not probably made the least use during
their lives, and about which they perhaps had never
so much as entertained a thought.
A number of able Writers in the last century have,
it must be confessed, also contributed to bring into
credit the practice we mention. Considering voluntary
flagellations in the same light as they did all methods
in general of mortifying the flesh, they commended
them, and procured them to be admitted. My design
here is not by any means to question the good
intentions of so respectable persons, who held the
first rank among the Society of the Fathers Jesuits,
and were looked upon, if I may so express myself,
like so many Heroes in the Republic of Letters: but
yet, on the other hand, I cannot be persuaded that it
is unlawful to animadvert upon the ignorance and
impudence of Painters, of which Lucian says that
they were “as licentious as the Poets[6];” and to
endeavour, if possible, to obtain from the Prelates of
the Church, that, since pictures are the books of
ignorant Christians, no Fables and lies be
represented in them; and that such as contain
notorious falsehoods be banished from those
Churches and Chapels in which Jesus Christ, who
was truth itself, is daily adored. At least this will be
admitted, that truth has no need of the assistance of
falsehood to protect it: supported by its own strength,
it sets at defiance the attacks of both Folly and
Sophistry.
 FOOTNOTES:

[4] The word Discipline originally signified in general,

the censures and corrections which persons who were
guilty of Sins, received from their Superiors; and when
Flagellation was to be part of those corrections, it was
expressly mentioned; and they called such Discipline,
as the Reader will see in the Sequel of this Book, “the
discipline of the whip,” (disciplina flagelli). As
Flagellation grew afterwards to be the common
method of doing penance that prevailed among
persons in religious Orders, the bare word discipline
became in course of time the technical word to
express that kind of chastisement: thus, the Reader
will find hereafter an instance in which Flagellation,
when too long continued, is called “the madness of too
long discipline,” (longioris disciplinæ insania). And at
last, those kinds of whips made of knotted and twisted
cords, commonly used for the above pious exercises,
have also been called by the same name; and the
word discipline has become in French, for instance,
the appropriated word to express the instrument of
religious flagellation. Thus, in Molière’s Play, called the
Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite, Tartuffe tells his Man,
“Laurent, lock up my hair-cloth, and discipline, and
pray that Heaven may always illuminate you.”
Laurent, serrez ma haire avec ma discipline,
Et priez que toujours le Ciel vous illumine.
Tart. A. III. Sc. 2.
 [5] Sursùm & deorsùm disciplina.——All the Women
(as the Writer of this Commentary has been told, when
in Catholic Countries) who make self-flagellation part
of their religious exercises, whether they live in or out
of Convents, use the lower discipline, as defined
above: their pious and merciful Confessors having
suggested to them, that the upper discipline may prove
dangerous, and be the cause of hurting their breasts,
especially when they mean to proceed in that holy
exercise with unusual fervour and severity. A few
Orders of Friars, among whom are the Capuchins, also
use the lower kind of discipline; but for what reason the
Commentator has not been as yet informed.
Perhaps it will be asked here, how Priests and
Confessors have been able to introduce the use of
such a painful practice as flagellation, among the
persons who choose to be directed by them in
religious matters, and how they can enforce obedience
to the prescriptions they give them in that respect. But
here it must be remembered, that Penance has been
made a Sacrament among Catholics, and that
Satisfaction, as may be seen in the Books that treat of
that subject, is an essential part of it, and must always
precede the Absolution on the part of the Confessor.
Now, as Confessors have it in their power to refuse
this Absolution, so long as the Penances or
Satisfactions of any kind, which they have enjoyed to
their Penitents, have not been accomplished, this
confers on them a very great authority; and though, to
a number of those who apply to them, who care but
little for such Absolution, or in case of refusal are ready
to apply to other more easy Confessors, they scarcely
prescribe any other kind of Satisfaction than saying a
certain number of prayers, or such like mortification;
yet, to those persons who think it a very serious affair
when a Confessor in whom they trust, continues to
refuse them his absolution, they may enjoin almost
what kind of penance they please. And indeed since
Confessors have been able to prevail upon Kings to
leave their kingdoms and engage in perilous wars and
croisades to the Holy Land, and to induce young and
tender Queens to perform on foot pilgrimages to very
distant places, it is not difficult to understand how they
have been able gradually to prevail upon numbers of
their Devotees of both Sexes, to follow practices which
they had been so foolish as to adopt for themselves,
and to practise, at their own choice, either the lower, or
the upper, discipline.
[6] Dial. Ὑπὲρ τῶν Εἰκόνων—Καὶ τοὶ παλαιὸς οὕτος
ὁ λόγος, ἀνευθύνους εἶναι Ποιητὰς καὶ Γραφέας. The
Greek word ἀνευθύνους, used here, literally signifies
that Poets and Painters are not obliged to give any
account of their actions. Horace has also expressed a
thought of the same kind with regard to them, in his
Ars Poetica, “Painters and Poets have always equally
enjoyed the power of daring every thing.”
Pictoribus atque Poëtis
Quidlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas.
A. P. v. 9, 10.
The complaints of our Author with respect to the
loose which Painters have been used to give to their
own fancy, when they have treated religious subjects,
are well grounded; and persons who have travelled in
Catholic Countries cannot but have taken notice of the
freedom that prevails in their Church-pictures: hence a
number of stories are related among them of Nuns, or
other Women, who have fallen in love with naked
figures of Angels and Saints, and of Men who have
been led into extravagances by the passion they had
conceived for certain statues, or pictures. As to errors
concerning facts merely, and faults against the
Costume, which our Author seems more particularly to
allude to, in this Chapter, they are certainly very
frequent in the works of Painters: even the first among
them, such as Paul Veronese and others, are
reproached with capital ones. On this occasion the
Writer of this Commentary thinks he may relate what
he himself has seen in a Country Church in Germany,
in which a Painter, who had intended to represent the
Sacrifice of Isaac, had so far availed himself of the
potestas quidlibet audendi, mentioned above, that he
had represented Abraham with a blunderbuss in his
hand, ready to shoot his son, and an Angel, suddenly
come down from Heaven, pouring water on the pan.
 C H A P. II.

No persons, under the antient Law, inflicted on

themselves, with their own hands, voluntary
flagellations, or received them from the hands
of other persons.

FLAGELLATION, there is no doubt, is a method of

coercive punishment very antiently used among Men.
We find it mentioned in the Old Testament, in the fifth
chapter of Exodus: it is said in that chapter, that the
Ministers of Pharaoh, who required from the
Israelites a certain number of bricks every day,
having found them to have failed in supplying the
usual number, ordered them to be flogged; and that
the latter complained of this harsh usage.
V. 14. “And the officers of the children of Israel,
which Pharaoh’s Task masters had set over them,
were beaten[7], and demanded, Wherefore have you
not fulfilled your task in making brick, both yesterday
and to-day, as heretofore?”
 15. “Then the Officers of the children of Israel
came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore
dealest thou thus with thy servants?”
16. “There is no straw given unto thy servants, and
they say to us, Make brick: and behold we are
beaten, but the fault is in thine own people.”—Now, I
think that no commentary is necessary to prove that
the flagellations mentioned here were not in any
degree voluntary on the part of those who underwent
them.
We also find mention made in Leviticus of the
punishment of Flagellation: this is the punishment
awarded, in the nineteenth chapter, against those
who should be guilty of the sin of Fornication. “And
whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that is a
bond-maid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all
redeemed, nor freedom given her, she shall be
scourged; they shall not be put to death, because
she was not free.”
The Hebrew words in the text, which are
commonly translated by these, shall be scourged,
are justly translated so, though in the version of the
LXX. they are only translated by the words, shall be
punished[8]; for the punishment used on those
occasions was inflicted, as the learned Vatable
observes, with thongs of ox-leather, that is to say,
with scourges. To this I think it is needless to add,
that the Israelites did not voluntarily impose on
themselves the abovementioned scourgings, and
that they never were suffered by any of them but
much against their will.
In the xxvth chapter of Deuteronomy, the number
of lashes which Offenders of any kind were to
receive, was limited to forty. V. 2. “And it shall be, if
the wicked may be worthy to be beaten, that the
Judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten
before his face, according to a certain number.”
3. “Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed;
but if he should exceed, and beat him above these
with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile
unto thee.”
Now, it is evident from the above passage, that the
Israelites were very far from approving any cruel
flagellations, like those which Monks in our days
inflict on themselves with whip-cords filled with knots,
or sometimes armed with nails or needles; since they
were even forbidden to suffer their Brother to be too
cruelly lashed in their presence. Nor was it the
incisions made on the bodies of innocent persons
before the altar of Moloch, or at the funerals of the
dead, which God meant here to prevent; He even
prescribed tenderness to the sufferings of a
convicted offender, though he deserved the stripes
that were inflicted on him. Therefore, if the law of
God forbad any cruel excess in the chastising of
persons who were guilty of crimes, much more did it
disapprove that Men should unmercifully lash and
flay themselves with rods and whip-cords. Indeed,
the modern practice of lashing and whipping one’s
self to the effusion of blood, is by no means intitled to
our admiration. How could it be possible that an
unhappy Friar, who lives in certain modern
Monasteries, should not have his skin torn from head
to foot, since it is a constant practice among them to
discipline themselves three or four times every week,
during the whole time that the Miserere, the De
Profundis[9], and the Salve Regina, are singing, with
a melodious, though slow, voice; and that too so
heavily, and in such earnest, that the rattling of the
blows resounds on all sides?
Several persons, however, still insist that religious
flagellations were in use among the ancient Jews,
and draw, it must be confessed, strong arguments
from the words of David, in Psal. lxxiii. 14: “For all the
day long have I been plagued, and chastened every
morning[10].” But if we consider attentively these
expressions of the Prophet, we shall find that they do
not by any means signify that he lashed himself with
a scourge every day, and all the day long. Those
stripes of which he speaks are to be understood only
in a figurative sense, and they only mean those
misfortunes and tribulations which are frequently the
lot of the righteous in this world: and indeed we see
that David exclaims elsewhere, ‘For I am ready to
halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.’
Besides, we are to observe that St. Austin, a Writer
of the highest authority, paraphrases the above-
mentioned passage of Ps. lxxiii. in the following
manner: “I am never free from afflictions from God; I
discharge my duty, and yet I am beaten, &c.” Indeed
the above is only the rational meaning of the
passage in question; and we cannot with any degree
of probability infer from it (as certain persons do) that
the practice of scourging one’s self voluntarily, and
lashing one’s hide with rods and whip-cords, was in
use among the ancient Hebrews, and that such a
whimsical notion ever entered their heads. It is true
that Philo the Jew, and Eusebius of Cæsarea, relate,
that the Esseans, or Therapeutæ (whether they were
a particular sect of the Jews, or are to be ranked
among the first Christians, is not clear) were
celebrated on account of the macerations which they
practised; but then we are intirely ignorant of the
methods which they used in order to mortify
themselves, and we are no where told that they
employed for that purpose either disciplines or whips.
 Yet, this cannot be disallowed, that after the two
Rabbins, Mayr, and Asse the Son, had compiled the
Babylonian Talmud[11] that is to say, about the 476th
year from the birth of our Lord, new practices began
to prevail among the Jews. Fascinated, I do not know
by what kind of superstition, they began to use,
contrary to their former customs, a sort of voluntary
discipline; though, we are to observe, they never
inflicted such discipline on themselves with their own
hands. We are informed of the above fact, in the
Treatise intitled Malkos, in the 3d Chapter of which it
is said, that the Jews, after they had finished their
prayers and confessed their sins (which were
exercises they derived from their ancestors) used to
lash one another with scourges.
John Buxtorf the Father, a Protestant Author, in his
Book of the Judaic Synagogue, printed at Basil in the
year 1661, describes the above practice of the Jews
at some length, and says, That there are constantly
two Men in every Jewish school, who withdraw from
the rest of the Company, and retire into a particular
place of the room where they are met; that the one
lays himself flat on the ground with his head turned to
the North, and his feet to the South (or his head to
the South, and his feet to the North); and that the
other, who remains standing, gives him thirty-nine
blows upon his back with a strap, or thong of ox-
leather. In the meanwhile, the Man who is lashed,
recites three times over the thirty-eighth verse of
Psal. lxxviii. This verse, in the Hebrew language,
contains just thirteen words; at every word the
Patient recites, he receives a lash from the other
Man; which, when he has recited the whole verse
three times over, makes up the prescribed number of
thirty-nine; and at every time he says the last word,
he strikes his own breast with his fist[12]. This
operation being concluded, the Agent in his turn
becomes the Patient, and places himself in the same
situation as the other had done, who then uses him
in the same brotherly manner in which the former
had used him, and they thus mutually chastise each
other for their sins, and rub one another, Buxtorf
observes, like Asses.
Perhaps the Reader will be surprised that the
Rabbins have limited the number of the stripes
inflicted in the manner above-described, to thirty-
nine, since the Law of Moses had extended their
number to forty; but to this the Rabbins answer, that
it is owing to the peculiar manner in which the
punishment of stripes was inflicted in antient times.
The ancient Jews, they say, used a scourge made of
three thongs; one of which was very long, and went
round the body of the person who was scourged, and
the two others were a good deal shorter. Thirteen
blows with this three-thonged scourge were given to
the Patient; which, according to the Rabbins’ manner
of explaining the law, made thirty-nine stripes in all:
now, if one stroke more had been given him, he
would have received forty-two, which would have
been contrary to the law of Moses, which says, “Forty
stripes he may give him, and not exceed[13].”
 FOOTNOTES:

[7] The words of the Vulgate in this place, are,

flagellati sunt, which signify, were lashed with rods or
whips: and in v. 16, flagellis cædimur, which has the
same meaning.
[8] The Hebrew words in the text are: ‫ בקרת תהיה‬the
Greek words for these, in the LXX. are, ἐπισκοπὴ ἔσται
αὐτοῖς.—As I do not understand Hebrew, I shall not try
to make any remark on the above Hebrew words, but
trust for that to the sagaciousness of the reader;
however, with respect to the Greek words that follow
them, I think I should be greatly wanting in my duty to
the Public, in my capacity of Commentator, if I did not
communicate to them an observation with which those
words supply me, which is, that there is a material
error in the passage above recited, in our common
translation of the Bible; for the Reader may see that
the punishment of scourging, in case of fornication, is
confined, in that passage, to the Woman solely;
whereas the word αὐτοῖς, which is a plural word,
shews that both the Man and Woman were to be
punished alike; and instead of she shall, as our Bible is
worded in that passage, it ought to be, they shall be
scourged. This remark on the above singular alteration
of the true sense of the Bible, to the prejudice of
Women (supposing it is not an error of the press)
naturally leads me to take notice here of the unjust
disposition of Men towards Women in general, in all
that relates to the mutual intercourse of the Sexes: a