This reply makes no defense of the rational choice perspective, asserting that its heuristic value is incontrovertible, but instead answers three substantive issues raised by Akers. These include the need for adequate microlevel theories of human action in criminology, the metatheoretical requirements of such theories, and the competing claims and areas of convenience of existing candidate theories. The rational choice perspective is useful in conceptualizing and investigating the local interactional field, in relating concepts in everyday language, in avoiding the need to constantly update its action theory, and in maintaining a generality appropriate to the microsociological level of explanation at which it operates. 135 references