Provide an argument for or against the use of integrative theories. Determine whether these theories clarify or confuse our explanations for crime.

Criminology and penology have undergone diverse developments in terms of determining the causality of crime during the past decades . More criminologists are now open to new views and ideas and are no longer hindered or confined to the merits and limitations of a single school of thought as compared with another . Criminologists have adopted integration theories or integrative /multi-disciplinary approach in the pursuit and better understanding of the factors that contribute and in consequence , lead to the perpetration of crimes

This approach in studying crime is not exactly a new model but

it is a concept that has gained wider acceptance in the past twenty years after the pioneering and individual studies of Robert K . Merton , Edwin H Sutherland and Albert K . Cohen (Messner , Krone and Liska , 1989 . Even though skeptics assume that following integrative theories in studies cause confusion , especially in terms of form of substance , since integration methodologies are diverse its subject could either be detailed or general /broad in scope . But the very nature of the integrative theory that is so prone to attacks by skeptics is its strongest and most enduring quality

Gregg Barak (1998 ) discoursed that integration theory is involved in bridging different but comprehensive models / theories producing a synthesized and cohesive school of thought . Confusion and dilution of ideas could be avoided with a conscious effort in determining the best methodology to tackle a chosen subject . Barak (2002 ) discussed the different ways of seeing integration and integrating bodies of theories and knowledge

As mentioned earlier , there are a variety of ways to discuss a subject It could either be specific or extensive . For example , a criminologist could study a single form of criminality (i .e . juvenile delinquency or rape ) or a broader issue (i .e . violence against women and homosexuals using theories on sociology , economics , law , biological and cultural etc , as foundations of study

Integrating bodies of theories could be constructed in a positivist or modernist manner . Under the positivist method , studies could be prepared through structural , conceptual or by assimilation . Structural incorporates the strongest components of existing theories and models to come up with a new format . Under this type of methodology , Braithwaite (1989 ) suggested that a side-by-side integration is a more stable layout , especially for sequencing components of the study - outcomes are dependent on the results preceding it . Conceptual methodology brings together different theories and demonstrates how these different theories could achieve degree of results at varying levels of analysis Assimilation on the other hand , unites different theories into large frameworks , regardless of the interaction of the theories with one another

Modernist constructions are separated into three methodologies - socio-micro model , socio-macro model and micro-macro model . The socio-micro model deals with the categorizing sets or groups of people and their behavior towards the enactment of crime . An example of this model was discussed by Wilson and Herrnstein (1985 ) in their book , Crime and Human Nature , claiming that there is a connection between criminality , biology , familial traditions , education and mass media . The socio-macro model...