Inhaltsübersicht: 1. Introduction - 2. Criminological theorizing today: The state of criminological theory - The mutual relevance of criminology and criminal justice - The desirability of general theories of crime: exigencies - 3. 'A General Theory of Crime' (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990): Foundations - Theme, structure and propositions - 4. Towards an analytical framework: Under focus: action, individuals, groups - The sociological model of explanation - The explicative range of self-control theory - Limits to generality: What can self-control theory explain? - 5. Theory construction: Deductive theories - Criteria for (methodological) critique - 6. Self-control theory: a critical appraisal: Reception of self-control theory by other scholars - Methodological criteria (structure) - Methodological criteria (content, logic and consistency) - 7. The empirical status of self-control theory: Testing self-control theory - Self-control theory through the studies: The core propositions - A meta-analysis of low self-control (Pratt and Cullen, 2000) - Empirical status: resume - 8. Self-control theory, public policy and ideology: Practical yields from self-control theory according to Gottfredson and Hirschi - Ideological issues in self-control theory - 9. Summing up: The challenge of criminology - Self-control theory - Limits to generality - Performance of self-control theory in empirical studies - Methodological quality - No Adenption: big noise about modest claims? - 10. Looking ahead: on the prospects of theoretical integration: Theoretical integration in criminology - (Back) towards an analytical framework - Levels of explanation - Macro-, micro- and individual level theories - Fears of reductionism - Partial criminological theories and limitation of scope - 11. Conclusion - Epilogue: Beyond self-control - Appendix 1, 2, Bibliography