The theory in this book suggests that the key to crime control is cultural commitments to shaming in ways that I call reintegrative. Societies with low crime rates are those that shame potently and judiciously; individuals who resort to crime are those insulated from shame over their wrongdoing. However, shame can be applied injudiciously and counterproductively; the theory seeks to specify the types of shaming which cause rather than prevent crime.

Toward a General Theory

Crime is not a unidimensional construct. For this reason one should not be overly optimistic about a general theory which sets out to explain all types of crime. In fact, until fairly recently, I was so pessimistic about such an endeavor as to regard it as misguided. Clearly, the kinds of variables required to explain a phenomenon like rape are very different from those necessary to an explanation of embezzlement.

Equally clearly, there is a long tradition of purportedly general theorizing in criminology which in fact offers explanations of male criminality to the exclusion of female crime by focusing totally on male socialization experiences as explanatory variables. Other theories focus on big city crime to the exclusion of small town and rural crime by alighting upon urban environment as an explanation; others explain juvenile but not adult crime, or neglect the need to explain white collar crime.

Notwithstanding the diversity of behavior subsumed under the crime rubric, the contention of this book is that there is sufficient in common between different types of crime to render a general explanation possible.