ABSTRACT
For reasons that will be noted in the final section of the paper, the development of such a framework is much easier to advocate than it is to actualize, and all of the classic attempts such as that of Shaw and McKay were largely unsuccessful (see Finestone, 1976). As a result, although there are occasional references to the complex nature of law violation, most criminologists have focused exclusively on a more limited set of concerns, leading to sometimes bitter debates about the “proper” level of analysis (see the excellent review of Groves and Lynch, 1990). However, a small but growing number of criminolo gists have begun to not only re-emphasize the intrinsically multilevel
aspects of crime, but also to propose frameworks conducive to the eventual development of an all-encompassing criminological theory (see in particular Miethe and Meier, 1994; Meier et al., 1996, this volume; Reiss and Roth, 1993; Sampson and Lauritsen, 1993; Short, 1985, 1997, 1998).
