ABSTRACT
It is easier to document the inadequacies of existing theories of offending than to propose a new theory that overcomes these defects. However, there are three major clusters of inadequacies that this chapter will highlight and that my theory is designed to rectify. The first is the neglect of the continuity between offending and other types of antisocial behavior. The acts defined as offenses should be viewed as a subset of a wider category of antisocial or deviant acts. Hence, I will assume that offenses and other types of antisocial acts are behavioral manifestations of an underlying antisocial tendency. The second is the neglect of the continuity in antisocial behavior from childhood to adulthood, and the third is the exclusion of biological and psychological factors from most criminological theories.
