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Major Criminological Theories: Concepts and Measurement. By Liqun Cao. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2004. Pp. xv, 219)
There are two distinct ways of writing a book on criminological theories. The first is to summarize the existing theories and evaluate their empirical status. The second is to criticize the current theories and offer a new approach of research or a set of new concepts which can illustrate crime in a new light. Most textbooks belong to the first type and most monographs belong to the second category. Textbooks are written for students to develop a comprehensive knowledge about the status of theories while monographs offer students a new way of looking at the world. Seldom are these activities conflated.
The book in front of me attempts to add a new insight of testing theories without distorting the criminological theories. It is both a summary of existing theories and a new way of doing research in the future. It is clear that the book is written for students, but it is also obvious that the book has a new approach. Instead of just doing a summary and evaluation, it develops a lively and sophisticated critique of the current practice in testing theories. It pinpoints the problem as the ¡°bifurcation of theory and methodology¡± (p. 25) in our training and offers a solution as movement toward standardization of measures. The author is very careful in the choice of words. He does not advocate standardization, instead he advocates the movement toward standardization in our practice. He attempts to keep the delicate balance of using the more standardized theoretical measures without stiffening the creativity in research.
Divided into 13 chapters, this book is laudably comprehensive and covers twelve most widely used criminological theories. The rationale for the book, presented in the first two chapters, is that progress in science is largely dependent on the measurement used and the concern for measurement is the primary raison d¡¯etre to claim criminology as a social science. The poignant performance of criminological theory, however, is related to the lack of standardization of measures in each theory and the lack of interplay between empirical research and theory construction. Meanwhile, the material about scientific method and research model in these two chapters is necessary for readers to begin to understand the complexities surrounding the lack of both well-defined key concepts and their commonly accepted corresponding measuring instruments by the criminological community.
Starting with rational choice perspective and routine activity approach, from Chapter 3 to Chapter 11, Cao elucidates twelve major criminological theories and their derivatives and compatibles. He lists unique measures that capture the key concepts of each theory. Besides rational choice perspective and routine activity approach, the other major criminological theories described in the book include biological, personality, and neutralization theories, social disorganization theory, anomie tradition, differential association and social learning theories, subculture of violence theory, social bond theory, labeling theory, and conflict theory.
In each chapter, Cao traces back to the origins of the theoretical tradition and briefly describes the development of each theory. Moreover, Cao points out the key concepts of each theory and their corresponding measures in the current literature. Even for Merton¡¯s anomie theory --- which has been ¡°tested without reference to his concept of anomie¡± (p. 75), Cao provides the readers with three exceptions. Altogether in thirteen tables, measures of key theoretical concepts are listed, and Cao offers a critique of the advantages and problems of the measures in the existing research. By doing it, Cao attempts to improve the consciousness of readers about the measuring devices for the major criminological theories. It is important to note that Cao only focuses on describing the unique measures of key concepts in each theory and on conceptualization of these measures.
Chapter 12 is on integrative theories. It begins with a description of a general pattern of theory development and the historical forces behind the current fascination of theory integration and presents merits and problems associated with theoretical integration. He argues that theoretical integration is not the only future to the fragmented criminology. Instead, it may be just one of the potential solutions for theory construction. In the long run, he argues, the healthy development of criminological theory relies on the invention of more standardized measuring instruments of a theory and on more comprehensive designs to test a theory in its entity. Theory construction is symmetrically dependent on both theory elaboration and theory integration.
In Chapter 13 The Future of Criminological Theories, Cao summarizes the existing problems in testing criminological theories, such as the lack of effort toward standardization of measurement, a tendency to reify the extant theory. By arguing that it is time for empirical criminologists to get down to brass tacks and seriously face the challenge, Cao proposes three solutions to deal with these problems. First, when a concept has more than a dozen ways of operationalization, efforts toward standardization are called for. Second, when there is no much attempt to reinterpret a classic theory, the liberation of the paradigm becomes essential. Third, comprehensive test of a theory instead of the piecemeal approach is needed in the research design. Thus, the conclusion of this book is that scientific criminology must face the challenges posed by measurement. Generally, two unique features run through the whole book: deduction of a theory is used, and a summary of the theoretical operationalizations is emphasized.
As the culmination of more than a decade of Cao¡¯s research and teaching of criminology, the book combines criminological theories with a concern for measurement of abstract concepts. It attempts to bridge theorizing and measures so that they will become interrelated parts of scientific theory construction. As Cao¡¯s previous advisor --- Francis T. Cullen, addresses in the foreword, ¡°it not only introduces readers to the scientific method but also and more noteworthy shows specifically how key concepts in each theoretical tradition are measured. Students thus are given the rare opportunity to glimpse the inner workings of science to see how scholars have innovatively developed ways of assessing the central components of competing theories¡± (p. xii).
This is a very useful book, giving a thorough and thematic review of the key concepts and measurements of major criminological theories. This book, however, has not examined in any detail the large constraints of each theory. Moreover, the measures of key concepts are reported, but little discussion of measuring the significance and representativeness of data (probability, sampling, and problems in polling) or of measuring relationships between variables in a theory (association and correlation) are attempted. But this does not detract from the fact that students will find this an invaluable book, and it admirably fills a gaping hole in the existing literature. In other words, this is the only text to attempt to comprehensively address key concepts of major criminological theories and their corresponding measures.
No aspect of criminology is more vexing than testing theories. Cao sets himself an important and difficult task and succeeds remarkably in rising to the theoretical challenge. The book is not simply a textbook, but a cogent and scholarly monograph. It makes a unique contribution to the criminological literature.
Reviewed by Ling Ren, Ph.D.
Criminal Justice Review, 29, 413-414
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Major Criminological Theories: Concepts and Measurement. By Liqun Cao. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2004. Pp. xv, 219)
Most recently when I have taught graduate criminology courses I have become more aware that students tend to think ideologically instead of empirically. And while it is true that all of us tend to more easily recall research that is consonant with our own worldview and forget or misremember that which we find incompatible with our beliefs, the challenge for us as teachers and scholars is to present theories and data in a truly fair and balanced fashion that will lead to greater insight and understanding of criminological knowledge. Our students, who seem to gravitate mostly to the far right, tend to want to believe in simplistic answers to complex problems, that is, criminal offenders simply choose crime. Why? Because criminals are bad or evil. And worse yet for some, does it really matter why they do so because all society really needs to do is identify them and lock¡¯em up for as long as possible.
Lest we become weary of asserting open-mindedness and intellectual curiosity as a badge of honor that we might flash to reign in our less thoughtful students who are mostly disinterested in learning about criminological explanations for crime, we also might reconsider how we teach this important subject. The truth is we ought to re-dedicate ourselves to teaching them how to discern truth from fiction, good methods from poor ones, and which theories lend themselves to testing hypotheses that can be verified or refuted with data. I must confess that I have been guilty as any in these regards. Liqun Cao¡¯s Major Criminological Theories: Concepts and Measurements offers a good step in this direction.
Cao, formerly a student of Frank Cullen, and now an eminent scholar in his own right, has contributed a monograph that is unique in the field as Cullen himself points out in the Foreword. In one sense, this work challenges a field of study that thus far seems developmentally only to be creeping along. While journal articles may reveal tests involving hypotheses that we ought to acknowledge and discuss with our students and colleagues, the simple fact is that it is difficult to keep up with everything that is published. It is even more problematic for our students who often lack the background to fully comprehend what is published and the inclination to spend much time trying. Thus, we need criminological textbooks that assimilate such information. Professor Cao¡¯s book takes stock empirically of where we are as theoreticians so that we may continue going further.
Professor Cao¡¯s book organizes for all of us as scholars, teachers, and students an understanding of the empirical state of criminological knowledge. In so doing his work captures where we are, where we have been, and offers a glimpse perhaps of where we should or might go. In my 20 year academic career I have seen a divergence in theory and research almost continuously from my initial enrollment in graduate school at a university whose two departments of sociology simultaneously recruited me as a research assistant (I eventually chose the Department of Quantitative Sociology over the Department of Qualitative Sociology and thankfully, both departments merged back into a single unit during the two years I was pursuing my Master¡¯s degree). It has always been puzzling to me how quickly we seem willing to divorce how we might choose to explain a phenomenon from how we might know whether we have done so correctly. Instead, we often simply settle for trying only to be persuasive which can make for elegant theories for which it becomes increasingly impossible to develop testable hypotheses.
Major Criminological Theories: Concepts and Measurements sets us as a discipline back on course. The author not only charts for the reader the piecemeal progress of criminological theory but helps us to understand the origins of key perspectives, as well as the paths that flow from seminal sources. In an excellent first chapter the author convinces the reader of the importance of this endeavor. He notes that ¡°criminology cannot rely solely on its interesting subject matter or its political momentum¡± (p.1) for its success, but rather, it must advance empirically and strive for predictive utility. Toward these ends we must move away from fuzzy concepts and flabby operationalizations of key variables and tighten our theories and conduct appropriate studies that will help refine our understanding of crime and criminality. In so doing, Cao¡¯s book suggests a reconciliation of theory and research methods that may lead to a renaissance for the advancement of criminology.
After setting the stage in the first chapter for why criminology has a need for empiricism, Cao¡¯s second chapter logically proceeds to a brief description of research methods typically found in criminological research. Here he provides a compelling argument for the need to employ sound measures of concepts and appropriate data collection procedures if we are to produce results that can inform theory. Interestingly, he notes that there should be agreement about the methods we use to test hypotheses (or at least recognition about the strength and limitations of the approaches we choose) although we can expect variability in the interpretation of results.
Chapters 3 through 11 introduce the reader to various criminological perspectives for understanding human behavior ranging from rational choice to conflict theory, including biological explanations, social disorganization, anomie, differential association, social learning, subcultural of violence, social bond, and labeling theories. In addition, each chapter discusses the measurement of key concepts related to each theoretical perspective and summarizes what we know from extant research.
Two additional chapters that complete this volume include discussion on theory integration and the future of criminological theorizing, respectively. Both make an excellent contribution to this book and the latter is particularly well crafted. Professor Cao concludes by pointing out (p. 182) that, in response to some suggestions that we simply abandon the search for crime causation, we should choose to do otherwise: ¡°The current failure of criminological theory is linked to the negligence of concerted effort to produce comparable and agreed-upon measures to solve the intellectual puzzles handed to us by theoretical giants. It is not the failure of scientific theory itself. Criminologists cannot balk at providing valid theory, nor can they gain anything by retreating from doing better research.¡±
In closing, I would be remiss if I did not mention that I think this book is intended for graduate-level instruction or perhaps honors undergraduate classes rather than for upper or lower level undergraduate courses. In combination with something like Lilly, Cullen and Ball¡¯s Criminological Theory: Context and Consequences, Cromwell¡¯s In Their Own Words, and a reader of selected classical criminological contributions (e.g., Jacoby¡¯s Classics of Criminology), among other choices that might be considered, I believe that Professor Cao¡¯s book offers a welcome and much needed addition to the scholarship to which our students should be exposed if they are to be criminologically well-educated.
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Cromwell, Paul (2003) In Their Own Words: Criminals on Crime, An Anthology, 3rd ed. Roxbury: Los Angeles, CA.
Jacoby, Joseph E. (1994) Classics of Criminology, 2nd ed. Waveland: Prospect Heights, IL.
Lilly, J. Robert, Francis T. Cullen, and Richard A. Ball (2002) Criminological Theory: Context and Consequences, 3rd ed. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA.
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Reviewed by Quint C. Thurman, Ph.D., Professor, Chair
Department of Criminal Justice
Texas State University-San Marcos
Journal of Crime & Justice XXIX, 152-155
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