About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

217 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. ix (1941)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0217 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD IN THE United States every man is his own criminologist. He glibly and con- fidently assigns definite reasons for our high crime rates and for the causes of juve- nile delinquency in other than his own children, and has an effective and final scheme for the solution of the crime problem. The trained criminologist is much more humble and freely admits that the study of the causes of criminal conduct presents many opaque and baffling problems for which no satisfactory scientific methodology has yet been formulated. Tentative and probable conclusions are all that the criminological research worker can offer the community that demands that something be done. The complex process of personality development necessitates the division of causation research into several fields or aspects for careful and detailed study. Such a parceling out process inevitably results in duplication and overlapping, as may be seen when investigators attempt to understand the relationship of crime to our economic system in its operational and structural aspects. Psychiatrists and psychologists, and even biologists, may find themselves crossing each other's domains. The emphasis and orientation of these various disciplines justify whatever repetition may result. In the United States there has been a conspicuous absence of exclusive emphasis in any one field since 1915, but since that period causation study has gradually broadened to include the cultural situation and its relation to and influence upon the development of personality, criminal and noncriminal. A greater appreciation of the nonanatomical characteristics and an integration of influences of the social milieu have resulted in a clearer understanding of the process by which delinquency and criminality emerge in a dynamic industrial society where the phenomenon of conflict is the basic element of its continuing development or becoming. America's emancipation from European criminal theory lies in the attitudes of research students that any single-factor explanation is almost certain to be false, and that the only sure method of investigation which may reveal the basic patterns of causation lies in an attack on many fronts through the use of culture case studies of the delinquent himself without any presupposition of what ought to be found or to what extent or degree the results harmonize with the so-called criminal theories of the great scholars. The present issue of THE ANNALS presents as much of the relevant and reliable information about crime causation as can be obtained at the present time, and while each contributor may emphasize the specific causation pattern he is discussing he remains keenly aware of the limitations of his particular approach. To build a house requires many skills; to understand crime causation requires many points of view. J. P. SHALLOO ix

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most