While the advantages and need for cross-cultural analysis have been extolled since the writings of Emile Durkheim, the appearance and recognition of this comparative approach has been slow in coming to criminology. The scarcity of cross-cultural research and theory in criminology can be substantially traced to relativistic propositions embedded in criminological treatises. A critical examination of relativism in criminology, however, reveals a concept that is poorly developed or understood and is unconvincing as a barrier to cross-culturally derived generalizations.
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