strengthen services related to childhood development, useful policy suggestions require a
theoretical basis upon which they can be based. Through an integration of various
theories of crime and criminology, multi problem youth can be identified earlier,
specified early intervention programs can be designed to address social and moral
development deficits, and society can be better protected. Early intervention should be
preferred because as Corrado et al. suggest, costly alternatives such as incarceration take
place long after problem behaviors have developed (2002:v).
This paper will offer provide an integrative attempt to help understand multi
problem youth. This age graded theory of child underdevelopment is based on the life
course perspective and combines biological, sociological and psychological theoretical
strands, woven together through three, five year phases of child development.
Pragmatic Integration: A Life Course Approach
“The need for integration springs from the historical and continued reality in which
there are many disciplinary routes to crimes and criminology” (Barak, 1998:10).
In a discipline like Criminology replete with theories, approaches and
orientations, the desirability of a more pragmatic approach to integration is perhaps only
outweighed by its practical necessity. While this necessity ought not trump the need for
any integrative attempt to address matters of internal consistency and suitability, the
value of one specific formulation of a more general conception of human behavior should
not be overstated. Whether it is an individual or more generalizable theory of crime based
on social development, interaction or opportunity, incomplete theories must give way to
other more nuanced and socially useful formulations.
This view is based on the notion that complex social phenomena such as crime
and punishment cannot be researched using a single philosophical tenet without severely
limiting any possible analysis, requiring one to ignore more factors than it is possible to
consider. Consequently, more criminologists and theorists are considering the adoption of
integrative frameworks for new research, opening the door to the creative plurality of
3
This construction is based somewhat on the work of Richard Rorty. A pragmatic philosopher, Rorty
(1998) argues that to be effective those who seek to challenge inequity embrace a new pragmatism that
seeks to ground the various post modern, anti-foundationalist critiques into practical, realistic and
achievable goals. See Rorty, Richard (1999). Philosophy and Social Hope. London: Penguin
3
Convention