If you look at the author's published papers[0] just about every one involves highly sensitive political and social topics. That means they're likely to be quoted outside of the field where people will say things like "Look, it's scientific it was published in a peer-reviewed journal!"

Young adults have this guy as a professor and they believe that surely their professor knows what he's talking about.

This story is a few months old, the retraction request looks serious[1], and I'm left thinking that either Picket has gone off the rails or this entire field looks awful.

The paper in question has 78 citations and Stewart (the one accused of fabricating data) has 5,712 citations according to Google Scholar.

[0] - http://criminology.fsu.edu/research/type/eric-stewart/ [1] - https://cj.fiu.edu/student-resources/resources-for-graduate-...

edit: this thread of some sociologists discussing this issue is interesting - https://www.socjobrumors.com/topic/co-author-requests-retrac...