"Fortunately, the statistical likelihood of being the victim of a heinous crime is slim to none. Most of us are more likely to die or become incapacitated by our own bad habits than by violent crime. However, crime touches all of our lives. Most of us will be, or will come into personal contact with, victims or perpetrators of some type of crime during our lifetimes. Even for the rare person who manages to avoid personally experiencing crime, daily consumption of crime in the media ensures that fear of crime and public safety have a permanent place as one of our top priorities for communities, politicians, local and federal government, and citizens. Much public and media attention is directed to the business of how to catch, convict, and punish criminals. It is impossible to respond to crime without asking, "What causes a person to engage in criminal behavior?” Beyond natural human curiosity, we need to know something about why crime occurs and who we’re dealing with in order to control and respond to crime. Knowing something about the factors associated with criminal behavior, the characteristics of offender types, and the “causes” of crime provides information with which to pursue and investigate suspects, adjudicate defendants, make sentencing determinations, manage offenders in correctional institutions, make parole and reentry decisions, and design crime prevention and crime control strategies. All kinds of theories about why individuals commit crime are bandied about in public discourse. Crime is the product of rational choice and free will. Crime is caused by parental neglect and sexual and physical abuse. Crime is caused by poverty and social disorganization. Crime is caused by too much TV, mental illness, peer influences, the quest for power, violent films and video games, bad genes, head trauma, lack of attachment, too much attachment, pornography, social isolation, being bullied in school, Twinkies, PMS, Beevis and Butthead, The Catcher in the Rye, and so on . . . ."