In this chapter, I describe Matza’s drift theory of crime, which is the first theoretical effort to grant a causal role to morality. I then point to the main difficulties in drift theory, and I try to show that Hirschi’s bond theory is an effort to address and overcome those difficulties. At the same time, bond theory retains some of the main causal mechanisms proposed by drift theory. In relation to its partner, bond theory removes redundancy, relies on an improved version of compatibilism, and proposes a sounder causal mechanism according to which bonds are impediments. As a consequence, bond theory rejects drift theory theoretically, as well as empirically. At the same time, bond theory is built on drift theory, and it offers an improved version of it. Thus, bond theory can be understood as an example of theoretical evolution in criminology.
