SOC-3340 Lecture 11: Theory Integration

• School: App State
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC-3340
• Professor: Kenneth Sanchagrin

Document Summary

All the theories we have considered so far leads to some important questions: do some theories offer better explanations than others, do some theories receive more support than others? o. In the past, nearly all criminological theory has focused on theory competition. Why integration: no theory alone explains all criminal behavior, but each theory explains some of the factors related to criminal behavior. o. Up-down integration (conceptual integration): we take theories and combine them into bigger theories o o o. End-to-end integration: we take theories and link them together in an attempt to see what the proximate cause of crime is. Side-to-side integration: divide crime into different types and then use theories to explain each category of crime. Integration around a central concept: maybe an abstract concept or idea can cover most/all of the other theories. Perhaps, each theory only describes a step in the process. Many theories share common propositions, assumptions, and concepts.