ABSTRACT

Adequacy involves three distinct components: comprehensiveness, precision, and depth. Comprehensiveness refers to the number and inclusivity of causal elements that might be operating. The more comprehensive a theory, the more complete the explanations it can generate because more of the various causal forces that can come into play are accommodated within its framework. The individualistic behaviors that seem to be excluded from Sutherland's formulation could have been incorporated within the premises of differential association had its author recognized the need for breadth and had he been more attuned to comprehensiveness and precision. An adequate theory will reflect precision by containing statements about the contingencies under which it operates with greater or lesser force, revealing the time intervals between its causes and effects and spelling out the form of the causal relationships that it proposes. Adequate theories must be general enough to at least encompass a range of different kinds of deviant behavior, if not also a range of nondeviant behaviors.