ABSTRACT
In the early 20th century, while criminology was not well structured or coherent, the dominant perspective was psychological in nature. This chapter focuses on the "great schism" characterizing the disciplinary tug of war between psychological or biological approaches and sociological stances. The Michael-Adler report, on which the book was based, was commissioned by the Bureau of Social Hygiene and was meant to survey the extent of knowledge on the causes and prevention of criminal behavior. The chapter discusses the formation of Sutherland's theory, his outright dismissal of non-sociological approaches to explain crime, and the stranglehold sociology held on criminology into the late 20th century. Sutherland took the Michael-Adler report as a challenge. It describes more recent environmental vs. individual/psychological perspectives on crime, focusing on life-course criminology and its juxtaposition to developmental work. The chapter concludes with an assessment of whether criminology is still "sociological" and whether that is something to be desired.
