ABSTRACT

The importance of multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives and multiple theories to help us understand the different offenders is demonstrated in many of the chapters. For instance, in Ashlee Parker’s (Chapter 6) words: “Because rapists comprise such a heterogeneous sam­ ple of offenders, it is difficult to develop theories and paradigms that envelope all types and patterns of rape.’’Jennifer Gibbs (Chapter 3) makes a similar point in discussing treatment and theory: “Unfortunately, one theory cannot encompass all forms of battering behavior, and batterer intervention programs currently follow a ‘one size fits all’ approach for those involved in treatment, despite emerging evidence that all batterers are not the same .’’Another example comes from the chapter by Elizabeth Smith and Wendy Povitsky (Chapter 8), “Individual differences between adolescents may make any blanket explanation of juvenile drug use nearly impossible. There are a variety of sociological, biological, and psy­ chological factors that influence children in different ways and con­ tribute to illegal behavior and drug use.’’Thus, for many of the criminals examined, multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives or multiple theories are proposed to assist us in understanding their behavior.