Situational Crime Prevention and Offender Decision Making

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aiden Sidebottom ◽  
Nick Tilley
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
Prevention Research ◽  
Theoretical Underpinning ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Satisfactory Account

This chapter focuses on situational crime prevention, a method for reducing opportunities for crime by manipulating the immediate environment. It begins by charting the origins and development of situational crime prevention. It then describes how rational choice was later added as the model of offender decision making to underpin situational crime prevention. Three questions are then considered: Is rational choice the only possible theoretical underpinning for situational crime prevention? Is rational choice a satisfactory account of offender decision making? Does rational choice need to be supplemented for the purposes of crime prevention research and practice, and if so, with what?

scholarly journals Cyber-Situational Crime Prevention and the Breadth of Cybercrimes among Higher Education Institutions

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-47
Author(s):  
Sinchul Back ◽  
◽  
Jennifer LaPrade ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
National Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Prevention Activities ◽  
Theory Research

Academic institutions house enormous amounts of critical information from social security numbers of students to proprietary research data. Thus, maintaining up to date cybersecurity practices to protect academic institutions’ information and facilities against cyber-perpetrators has become a top priority. The purpose of this study is to assess common cybersecurity measures through a situational crime prevention (SCP) theoretical framework. Using a national data set of academic institutions in the United States, this study investigates the link between common cybersecurity measures, crime prevention activities, and cybercrimes. By focusing on the conceptualization of cybersecurity measures as SCP techniques, this study also offers the SCP approach as a framework by which universities can seek to reduce incidents of cybercrime through the design, maintenance, and use of the built environment in the digital realm. Implications for theory, research and practice are discussed.

Evolutionary Approaches to Rational Choice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Ekblom
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
Crime Science ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

This chapter seeks to enrich and extend thinking about the rational choice perspective to offender decision making and its pivotal application in situational crime prevention by taking an evolutionary approach, which is still uncommon in crime science and criminology. The chapter introduces basic concepts of evolution, covering the brain and behavior, levels and types of explanation, the strained relationship with social science, and the evidencing of evolutionary processes. The focus then shifts to rationality, covering decision making; the wider suite of processes needed to understand rationality in action; and specific discussions of cooperation, humans’ wider “sociocognitive niche,” and development. Although evolutionary issues are addressed throughout, the penultimate section discusses how rationality in the broadest sense has unfolded over evolutionary history and the significant connection between maximization of utility in contemporary rational choice and maximization/optimization of fitness in evolution. The conclusion raises practical, empirical, and theoretical questions for crime science.

scholarly journals Situational Crime Prevention in Sexual Offenses Against Women: Offenders Tell Us What Works and What Doesn’t

2020 ◽  
pp. 0306624X2091971
Author(s):  
Yi-Ning Chiu ◽  
Benoit Leclerc ◽  
Danielle M. Reynald ◽  
Richard Wortley
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
Environmental Design ◽  
Perceived Effectiveness ◽  
Protective Behavior ◽  
Sexual Offenses ◽  
What Works ◽  
Private Setting

This study examined the perceived effectiveness of situational crime prevention (SCP) in sexual assault as rated by 140 offenders convicted for sex offenses against women in Australia. Participants were presented with three scenarios and asked to rate the perceived effectiveness of SCP techniques relating to guardianship, victim self-protective behavior, and crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). Results indicate that the effectiveness of SCP methods was perceived to vary across different contexts. For offenses occurring in the private setting of an offender’s home, victim self-protective behavior was seen as most effective, followed by guardianship and CPTED. In public settings, although the perceived effectiveness of victim self-protective behavior remained the same, guardianship and CPTED were rated as significantly more effective. Further variations were identified regarding specific strategies. Findings highlight the nuances of offender decision making in different situations and environments, and provide the first empirical comparisons of SCP perceptions among sex offenders.

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