Walters, Glenn D.: Lifestyle Theory

Wilson R. Palacios

The intellectual curiosity for delinquent and/or criminal offending groups has been a dominant feature of the American criminological landscape for well over 100 years. While theoretical models and frameworks abound, critical concepts such as peer groups, social disorganization (e.g., collective efficacy), strain, social learning, differential association, self-control, rational choice, “career criminals” versus “criminal careers,” and criminal propensity, to name a few, have come to define certain theoretical epochs in American criminology. Yet despite these advancements, the criminological debate continues. There persists an enduring interest in understanding and explaining the human (criminogenic) decision-making processes within developmental and/or integrative theories—an approach which seems to be consistent with the level of empirical evidence that has been amassed in this time period. Glenn D. Walters's lifestyle theory can be considered an early variant of a developmental-integrative theory of criminality, although his most recent work calls for an integrative-interactive theory of lifestyles. The following Walters, ...

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