PRAGMATIC ETIOLOGY OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR.

CRIME prevention; CRIME; BEHAVIOR; HYPOTHESIS; ORGANIZATION; RESEARCH

Etiology or the inquiry into the causes of criminal and delinquent behavior is unquestionably the very heart of modern concern with crime and delinquency. Any progressive action in handling the problems of criminality and delinquency has as its springboard an etiological concept, explicit or implicit. The only types of crime and delinquency control that can be operated without any reference to the causes of the undesirable behavior are control through the threat and execution of punishment for the forbidden act without any regard for the offender and control by erecting mechanical obstacles in the way of the potential offender. One of the main points of this paper then is that the criminologists engaged in the study of the causes of delinquent and criminal behavior should not turn their backs on the analysis of the concept of cause, but on the contrary, should make a sustained effort to state their hypotheses as clearly as possible in this respect and carry out their research within a dearly established frame of reference. The concept of cause of delinquent behavior suggested in this paper might be referred to as a product of the pragmatic theory of causation. It is believed that this concept would best serve the purposes of theoretical organization of the scientific knowledge in the field, be most effective in directing further research and be most meaningful as a frame of reference for treatment and prevention.