3 - Situational and environmental perspectives on crime (L3, Wilcox & Gialopsos, Ruiter) Flashcards
Where does traditional criminology focus on? (Wilcox)
Offenders.
Where does crime-event criminology focusses on? (Wilcox)
Tries to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of crime events.
- Beyond someone inclined to commit an offence, there must be an opportunity to do so
- Some situations provide more opportunity than others
What factors led scholars to theorize that certain demographic groups were more susceptible to victimization, and how did they link these factors to greater exposure to opportunities for victimization? (Wilcox)
Individuals that were most at risk of victimization were part of demographic groups that had lifestyles associated with greater environmental exposure to opportunity for victimization.
Why was there an increase in offenses during the 1960s? (Wilcox)
There was a growing shift in daily activities from inside the home to public space, motivated offenders were provided with a greater supply of suiable targets.
What is a multilevel opportunity perspective? (Wilcox)
looking at different factors all at once to understand how they work together to either increase or decrease the chance of a crime happening. we can figure out what situations make it easier or harder for crimes to occur. Studies various levels of analysis simultaneously in order to understand how embedded contexts work together to create more or less opportunity for crime.
What are four critique points of crime-event criminology? (Wilcox)
- Downplaying social problems: Some feel that crime event theories don’t focus enough on underlying social issues that might lead to crime.
- Victim-Blaming: Some theories sound like they’re blaming victims for crimes, which can be unfair and unhelpful.
- Superficial Solutions: Critics argue that strategies focused on reducing opportunities for crime are like putting band-aids on the problem. They don’t address the root causes of crime.
- Conservatism: Some view opportunity-reducing strategies as conservative because they rely heavily on state-based control, which can limit personal freedom and independence.
Despite the criticisms, why do the ideas of crime-event criminology will continue according to Wilcox & Gialapsos?
- Technological Advancements: New technology helps us study when and where crimes happen, improving our understanding of crime patterns.
- Public Focus: Crime-event criminology is practical and aligns with the field’s emphasis on public engagement, making it useful for real-world applications.
- Not Conservative: Unlike some other approaches, crime-event criminology’s suggestions for policies and practices are not overly cautious or resistant to change.
- Protecting Victims and Deterring Offenders: Strategies from crime-event criminology, like reducing opportunities for crime, can protect victims and discourage potential offenders from committing crimes.
What are geographic and environmental criminologists interested in? (Ruiter)
In those choices that affect the spatial and temporal patterns in crime.
Vul aan (Ruiter). Crime not only varies over space, but also …
in cyclic patterns at different scales of temporal resolution.
What does the article of Ruiter discusses? (Ruiter)
How offenders decide where to commit crime, and stresses the importance of more research into temporal aspects of target choice. So, the uneven spatial patterns in crime from an offender decision-making perspective.
What did Balbi and Guerry used in early 1800s to show that crimes were not uniformly distributed across different regions? (Ruiter)
Crime maps.
Where is the environmental criminology field primarily concerned about? (Ruiter)
About the circumstances in which crimes occur - when and where, how, and against what targets or victims - it treats criminal motivation as a given.
What does the Routine Activity Theory provide (RAT; Ruiter)
Provided a macro-level approach which posits that, when in the course of their daily routines, people who are motivated to commit crime converge with suitable victims or targets in the absence of capable guardians.
Why does spatiotemporal crime clusters exist in the Routine Activity Theory? (Ruiter)
Because these convergence settings are not uniformly distributed over time and space.
What is something the Routine Activity Theory can not account for? (Ruiter)
By emphasizing that crimes occur during the daily routines, it suggests that most crimes are opportunistic, and by this RAT can’t account for the goal-orientated behavior of many offenders.
What does the Rational Choice Perspective provide (RCP; Ruiter)
Provides an informal rational choice theory for understanding offender behavior as goal-oriented decision making. Offenders are goal-orientaed and weigh their decisions on advantages and risks of the location/time of the crime.
In what ways do offenders make a choice to perform certain behaviors, looking at Rational Choice Perspective? (Ruiter)
Weighing costs and benefits of different behavior alternatives, offenders would make those choices that are assumed to bring them closer to their goals. Important: when, where and how.
What does the Crime Pattern Theory provide? (CPT; Ruiter)
Provides a comprehensive explanation of crime that combines insights from behavioral geography with the Rational Choice Perspective and Routine Activity Theory. offenders commit crimes where they also have their non-criminal routine activities. its about physical space.
According to the Crime Pattern Theory, in what ways do offenders behave? (Ruiter)
Offenders search for suitable targets or victims at places that emit cues that fit their learned templates of the characteristics of a ‘good crime site’.
What does the Crime Pattern Theory (CPT) states? (Ruiter)
Crime occurs at locations where attractive opportunities for crime overlap with awareness spaces of individuals motivated to commit crime.
Which three approaches to study crime location choices were used before the discrete choice framework? (Ruiter)
- Offender-based approach
- Target-based approach
- Mobility approach
What does the Offender-based approach use to study crime location choices? (Ruiter)
Studies either the criminals or the crimes as the main focus. It looks at how far and in which direction criminals travel, considering the offender’s characteristics and the nature of the crime they commit.
What does the Target-based approach use to study crime location choices? (Ruiter)
focuses on potential victims. It studies how the likelihood of being a victim varies based on the characteristics of the targets, such as their location, habits, or possessions.
What does the Mobility approach use to study crime location choices? (Ruiter)
studies pairs of locations and how often crimes happen between them. It looks at the characteristics of both the starting point and the destination to understand the patterns of criminal activity.
What does the Discrete choice framework provide? (DCF; Ruiter)
focuses on individual decision-making. It looks at how criminals choose specific target locations from a set of options. The main idea is to understand why and how an individual offender picks a particular target out of many possible choices.
What are the four key elements to any choice situation of the Discrete choice framework (DCF; Ruiter)
- Decision makers
- Alternatives
- Attributes
- Decision rule