Criminology Explains ....: Helping Students Compare and Integrate Criminological Theory

• In Event: Using Theory, Methods, and Other Resources to Enhance Teaching and Learning Practices

Abstract

Most undergraduate criminology textbooks are very effective at describing and applying individual theories and sometimes groups of related theories. However, most do not effectively present an integrated perspective; even where a “bio-psycho-social perspective” is promised, what is delivered is typically a discussion of biological theories, then psychological theories, and then social theories, with little effort to synthesize and integrate them, even within the same chapter. Most textbooks also lack other types of “through lines” (ways of tying chapters together). The result is that students are overwhelmed with a dizzying array of competing theories. This paper reports an approach in a Criminology course that created a “through line” by applying each theory to explain the same phenomenon – school bullying. Applying different (and sometimes wildly divergent and conflicting) explanatory models to the same problem served to highlight the similarities and differences among the theories, and allowed linkages among explanatory levels and across time and geography. The paper describes how the class was structured – including a discussion of reading materials, student projects, team work, and lectures – and concludes by describing the benefits of the approach to student retention and comprehension.

Author

• Robert Brooks, Worcester State University