A CONCLUDING NOTE

As I have stressed throughout this text, it is not the purpose of sociology to evaluate human behavior. In fact, sociology has no means to evaluate behavior, to decide that some particular behavior is superior or preferable to another behavior. Sociology's task is to study human behavior-to observe, describe, count, and analyze how behaviors are related to one another. Sociology can determine likely consequences if a group chooses one form of behavior over another, but sociology has no moral basis for determining that one behavior or consequence of behavior is better than another.

      It is within this principle that sociologists study human sexuality. Sociologists count (quantitative sociology) and describe (qualitative sociology) human sexual behavior. They also analyze what they count and describe, relating behavior to theory. To sociologists, sexual behavior is like any other human behavior-it is similar to buying a car or making a decision to go to college. People make evaluations about which act is preferable for them. Sociologists study those acts, whether sex or anything else. They attempt to determine how that behavior is related to people's position in society-to their social class, race-ethnicity, gender, age, and so on.

      When sociologists take a position on a social issue-such as premarital sex, marital sex, abstinence, age of sexual consent, cohabitation, prostitution, homosexuality, hate crimes, masturbation, sexual fidelity, male-female relations, and so on-they are not doing so as sociologists. They are stepping out of the role of sociologist and speaking as individual citizens. They are taking a stand based on their own values, preferences, and image of a better society, of the way they want things to be. Sociologists are often outspoken, for many feel passionate about their image of an ideal society, of how relations should be between men and women, racial and ethnic groups, heterosexuals and homosexuals, and other groups in society.

      Sociology, in contrast, is silent on the shoulds of human behavior. Human sexuality poses no exception to this principle.