Athens's theory has been subject of limited testing and critique. Some have criticized his interpretive methodology, which "requires the criminologist to step into the actor's shoes when studying criminal acts and actors." To them, his use of non-randomly selected subjects and lack of verification of their narratives were problematic, Others have noted that his work doesn't take into account the biology of violence. Rhodes's book generally praised his work and Rhodes found a number of examples of violent people whose stories validated Athens's theory. No comprehensive testing of Athens's theory as applied to street criminals has been carried out. O'Donnell, while praising the unique features of violentization theory, criticized its generality by pointing to areas in which he believed it could not apply, such as the lynching of blacks in the South, the conformity leading to genocide, and the decline of crime discussed in chapter 2 of this text. However, with respect to genocide, Winton demonstrated how Athens's theory could aptly explain the development and enactment of genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda. As mentioned, Athens's violentization theory is not widely dis cussed among mainstream criminologists. Yet, its “believers," namely symbolic and radical interactionists, continue to laud it a quarter of a century from its inception. It has a unique approach, one which O'Donnell would refer to as “daring," and is viscerally powerful in its ability to put one in the minds of those going through the stages from non-violence to some level of violent criminality. It should not be evaluated as a general theory of violence, but a model that intuitively (and perhaps empirically) works very well in encapsulating the violentization process. More effort should be spent on testing it empirically.