ABSTRACT
Authors of theories about the causes of crime and delinquency are likely to be uneasy about textbook accounts of their work. Textbooks are designed to appear to provide even-handed descriptions of the virtues and limitations of theories. Theorists, in contrast to all this, tend to advocate particular ideas and to stress the differences among them. If their logic and reading of the evidence led them to conclude that every idea enjoyed the same modest support in the data, and that all or most could be satisfactorily combined into one perspective about crime, there would be no point in going forward. Systematic reviews of the best studies consistently report that control theories find broad empirical support in a variety of disciplines. Differences between people in their tendency to commit criminal and deviant acts are observed at an early age and tend to persist over the life course. Efforts to integrate various theories should always be viewed with skepticism.
