Either despite or because of the disagreements resulting from this diversity, criminology in the United States is among the most lively in the world. It is a multidisciplinary scientific field which is concerned with generating knowledge about lawmaking, lawbreaking, and legal and social responses to lawbreaking. Criminologists originally believed that criminology would provide a practical technology for those who were practitioners in crime control. However, since World War II the awareness has grown that criminology has generally not given practitioners the knowledge and skills needed to control crime. Therefore, the view that criminology is an applied science is misleading. Interest in crime causes has declined significantly since World War II. More criminologists have focused on such issues as the conditions under which laws originate, the nature of different forms of criminality, and the individual and societal consequences of responses to lawbreaking. Criminologists are currently unsure about what theory should replace etiological theory. Criminology in the United States has an exciting and challenging future, since new theory and continued research efforts are needed on almost every aspect of the lawbreaking process. Notes and an annotated bibliography listing 48 references are provided. (Author summary modified)