Crime
True or False: Crimes committed are random events
False, they are patterned.
How are offenders viewed?
Offenders are active decision-makers who carry out a cost-benefit analysis of potential criminal acts. Behaviour is purposive.
Environmental Theories are also sometimes referred to in criminology as _________ Theories
Situational
How many situational precipitators are there and what are they?
3, Prompts, pressures & Provocations
Name two levels of Deindividuation:
Public self-awareness
Private self-awareness
How can crime patterns be described?
As clusters in space and time.
What is the Rational Choice Perspective?
crime as the result of a calculated decision made by perpetrators who weigh up the respective costs and benefits associated with planned actions
What is the context of ENVIRONMENT in relation to environmental theories?
immediate circumstances at the time an individual commits an offence
What is a prompt?
situational cues- eliciting and discriminative stimuli. Modelling – prompt imitation. Expectancies – respond to anticipations.
What is Deindividuation? (generally)
reduced self-awareness, commonly occurs due to group membership
What Pattern exists?
Crime is patterned by opportunities in the environment.
How is crime created?
by opportunities – when benefits outweigh costs
What is the idea of social psychology?
people behave differently in the company of others than they do alone
What are pressures?
Pressures to commit crime – conformity, obedience, compliance/defiance, deindividuation.
Define Public Self-Awareness
reduced concern with other’s censure (anonymity)
Types of Hotspots and describe them:
Spatial: Location
Temporal: Time and Day
What are opportunities?
when benefits outweigh costs
Opportunities may be created, sought out or taken as they occur
Define Environmental Psychology:
the effect on behaviour of the natural and built environment
What are provocations?
Frustration, crowing territoriality, environmental irritants
Define Private Self-Awareness
reduce monitoring of personal values (‘submerged identity’)
Example of Crime Patterns:
Offenders typically commit crimes close to home
Domestic burglaries occur during day, while industrial burglaries occur at night
Car thefts peak late Saturday nights
What is criminal decision-making?
Process of them weighing up costs and benefits.
Is crime specific.
What role does the immediate environment play in behaviour?
Why crime occurs, not why people become criminals. All behaviour results from interaction between person and situation
Name 'generally' a theory associated to each precipitator?
Prompts: Learning Theories
Pressures: Social Psychology
Provocations: Environmental Psychology
What increases this effect?
Increases with levels of arousal