The original study was titled "Violent Criminal Acts and Actors" and was published in 1980. It used a symbolic interactionist approach, which assumed that human action always occurs in a situation that confronts the actor and that actors define the situation and then act on the basis of their definitions. The research collected information from informal, detailed interviews with 58 offenders convicted of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, forcible and attempted forcible rape, and robbery in which the victim was seriously injured. Forty-seven offenders were male and 11 were female; their ages ranged from the mid-teens to the late 40s. The extension of the volume discusses the research methods and problems, the personal issues that led to the study, and the negative reception the study received when originally published, and ongoing problems in criminology. It concludes that a policy to control violent crime would primarily blend general prevention, selective rehabilitation, and selective incapacitation. Deterrence and retribution would not be central to the policy, although they would be included. Chapter notes, index, appended methodological information, and 169 references