Empirical Validity Of A Good Enough Theory

When trying to evaluate a theory and deem whether it is a good enough theory that can be applied throughout a vast majority of situations, in this case crimes, theorists have a specific criteria that they have to meet. When developing a theory, theorists must construct their theory so that it can be judged by this certain criteria. This criteria is made out of: 1.) empirical validity, 2.) its logical consistency, 3.) scope, and parsimony, 4.) testability as well as 5.) The usefulness and 6.) the policy implications (Akers and Sellers, 5).
It is important for a theory to possess empirical validity because without it, theorist would be unable to determine whether said theory could be accepted or dissolved with the evidence that has been gathered. The scope of a theory is pretty simple, it is
In the first subculture, delinquents are described as “youth gangs” who “primarily commit income producing offenses, such as theft, extortion and fraud” (Akers and Sellers, 178). These type of criminals have different methods to commit crime just in case one fails so that at the end of the day they will indelibly profit from their crimes. Delinquents in the second subculture are given the same opportunities as those in the first subculture, however, according to the evidence, these criminal rely on fighting to prove how tough they really are as well as unorganized and violent. Lastly, the third subculture is also given the same opportunities, however, those opportunities are not taken advantage of. These subculture, is known for not being made out of good thieves, individuals are also known as “double failures” (Akers and Sellers, 178). These criminals are typically associated with drug and alcohol use. They rely on these substances because it is the only way that they can cope with the fact that they have no opportunities and cannot provide any sort of