"Down home" criminology: The place of indigenous theories of crime

Comparative criminology continues to develop at an accelerated pace. Today, cross-national empirical studies of crime are quite common and comparative theories of crime, such as the Durkheimian-modernization theory, Marxian W orld Systems/Dependency theory, and ecological opportunity theory have been formulated There also have been several cross-national analyses of America n theories of crime, yet very little attention has been given to theoretica l developments unique to the historical, cultural, and social structural ch aracteristics of lesser known societies. The central thesis of this article is that criminology can benefit from the theories and concepts formulated outside the United States. The purpose of this article was to examine theor etical developments and concepts indigenous to various societies and to com pare them with theories prevalent in American criminology. The benefits of integrating non-American theories and concepts with dominant American theor ies of crime are discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights resen ted.