The situational aspects of crime prevention : the theoretical and philosophical foundations

Abstract

The differences between the causal models of crime and the situational ones have already been highlighted by Sutherland who said, "Scientific explanations of criminal behaviour may be stated either in terms of the processes which are operating at the moment of the occurrence of the crime or in terms of the processes operating in the earlier history of the criminal. In the first case, the explanation may be called 'mechanistic', 'situational' or 'dynamic', in the second, 'historical' or 'genetic'... Criminological explanations of the mechanistic type have thus far been notably unsuccessful, perhaps largely because they have been formulated in connection with the attempt to isolate personal and social pathologies among criminals. Work from this point of view has, at best, resulted in the conclusion that the immediate determinants of criminal behaviour lie in the person-situation complex. " In this paper, the interactional model of situational violence will be highlighted and I shall examine how violence may be predicted, and discuss possible modes of its prevention. There is indeed a link between predisposing factors on the biological, personal and social levels and the situational interaction, but the predisposition and situational aspects express themselves in different dynamics. [excerpt]