ABSTRACT
Four controversial issues lie at the core of criminology: definitions; the relationship between research strategies and the questions for which answers are sought; the assumption that psychological hedonism satisfactorily explains motivation; and the assumption that grand theory is good theory. This chapter focuses on these issues as subjects worthy of discussion by criminologists. The link between definition and chronicity leads to "the continuum fallacy". The continuum fallacy is the fallacy of reasoning that because career criminals commit more crimes than other types of criminals, any group of criminals who commit more crimes than do others are career criminals. Criminologists often seem to believe a grand theory of crime must account for the existence of crime. A career criminal can be defined as a person whose illegal behavior plays the type of important role in his or her life that an occupation plays in the life of noncriminals.
