This text uses a cognitive-behavioral and interactionist approach, integrating international theory and research and moving from broad, theoretical explanations and descriptions of crime toward empirical research on specific criminal offenses.

The book examines the causes, classification, prediction, prevention intervention, and treatment of criminal behavior from a social psychological perspective. The Sixth Edition presents the criminal offender as existing on a continuum, ranging from the serious, repetitive offender who begins his/her criminal career at a very young age to the adolescent-limited offender who usually begins offending during adolescence.