ABSTRACT
After attempting to demolish the empirical foundation of the class-crime relationship with his colleagues Wayne Villemez and Douglas Smith (1978), Charles Tittle (1983) went on to critique the theoretical foundations for expecting such a relationship. His examination of a variety of theories claiming that a negative relationship should exist between social class and crime led him to conclude that none of them provide an adequate theoretical rationale for such a prediction. Tittle claims that the theories he discusses only lead researchers to hypothesize a negative class-crime relationship because those who formulated the theories held unwarranted assumptions about the lower classes. These assumptions contained in their theories are seen by Tittle as little more than as pejorative stereotypes about lower-class culture, and the mentality and character of lower-class individuals.
