NCJ Number
161964
Date Published
1996
Length
48 pages
Annotation
This essay examines the debate about the integration of criminology theories and provides an overview of various attempts to integrate them.
Abstract
The authors argue that integration is the appropriate approach, because the theories primarily make different but not contradictory predictions; therefore, they believe that the competition among the different theories in criminology is largely empirical. They differ over how much or how little variation can be explained by particular variables and therefore by particular theories. The authors favor the common research technique of including a multitude of variables in a regression analysis. The testing of two theories against one another with the expectation of invalidating one or the other is almost always inappropriate at the theoretical level. The first section of the essay provides an overview of the major arguments that have formed the debate about theoretical integration in criminology, and the second section focuses on integration itself and reviews the literature that describes the process of theoretical integration and distinguishes among its main forms. The third section reviews six recent attempts at integrative theories to illustrate the process and forms of integration, and the fourth section presents the authors' perspective on integration and the integration debate. The remaining sections examine the strain, control, cultural deviance interpretation itself; propose a new interpretation of criminology theories based on the location of independent variation and the direction of causation; discuss research implications of the authors' theoretical arguments; and offer some practical considerations about the extent to which integration is useful. 1 figure and 93 references