The Growth of Criminological Theories

In the last 50 years, an extensive array of theorieshas appeared within the field of criminology, manygenerated by the discipline of sociology. With somany different, competing models and perspectivessurfacing, it is often difficult to determine iftheory growth is actually occurring in criminology,or if contemporary theories are merely recycledtheoretical models. The question of growth is animportant one to resolve because criminology, if itis truly a progressive form of social science, oughtto be producing theories that are evolving andimproving, and contributing to the accumulation ofknowledge.In order to assess the degree of theory accumulationin criminology, an existing model of theory growthproposed by David G. Wagner was applied to severaldifferent trajectories in the area of sociologicallybased theories within criminology. The findings ofthis research demonstrate the potential usefulness ofthe model in understanding theory growth anddevelopment within the field of criminology.

Autorentext

Jonathon Heidt is currently a Ph.D. student in criminology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. He received his B.A. in sociology from the University of Montana in 2000 and his M.A. from Simon Fraser University in 2003. His other research interests include illegal drug use, corrections and extraordinary group behavior.

Klappentext
In the last 50 years, an extensive array of theories has appeared within the field of criminology, many generated by the discipline of sociology. With so many different, competing models and perspectives surfacing, it is often difficult to determine if theory growth is actually occurring in criminology, or if contemporary theories are merely recycled theoretical models. The question of growth is an important one to resolve because criminology, if it is truly a progressive form of social science, ought to be producing theories that are evolving and improving, and contributing to the accumulation of knowledge. In order to assess the degree of theory accumulation in criminology, an existing model of theory growth proposed by David G. Wagner was applied to several different trajectories in the area of sociologically based theories within criminology. The findings of this research demonstrate the potential usefulness of the model in understanding theory growth and development within the field of criminology.