What International Research Has Told Us About Criminological Theory

This chapter explores why people commit crimes. It reveals that there are many competing theories that provide a variety of answers to this question. The chapter reviews and compares the results of research from Western and non‐Western countries, focusing on several theories that seem to have received the most testing in foreign contexts. For the sake of simplicity, these theories are placed in four broad groups: strain (general strain theory (GST)), social learning (social learning theory (SLT)), control, and “other” theories. Several other popular accounts of criminal behavior, such as deterrence, rational choice, and situational action theories, have been more or less extensively tested. In particular, extant cross‐national research has aided in finding out whether sociocultural environments may serve as contingencies for causal processes outlined in theories

How General is Control Balance Theory? Evidence from Ukraine

This study tests control balance theory using interview data from a random sample of adults in a large city in Ukraine. This is the first empirical assessment of the theory to employ a random sample of adults in a nonwestern culture, and it is one of only two studies to incorporate Tittle's theoretical revisions and measurement strategy for the control ratio. Although we found no evidence of a relationship between projected deviance and a dichotomous measure of control imbalance, respondents with a relatively large control imbalance were significantly more likely to project deviance than were other respondents. In addition, findings provide partial support for predicted contingent relationships involving constraint and self-control. We discuss possible ways in which the socio-cultural circumstances of Ukraine help to explain these findings

Attracted to Crime Exploration of Criminal Motivation Among Respondents in Three European Cities

Using data from samples of randomly selected adults in three major cities in Greece, Russia, and Ukraine, several issues concerning criminal motivation are addressed. First, contrary to assumptions of many control theories, there is evidence of substantial variation in criminal attraction across individuals, with such attraction often being minimal. Second, direct measurement of criminal attraction is strongly associated with property and violent crime projections. Third, although variables from strain and social learning theories help explain criminal motivation, they do not appear sufficient to account for it. Nevertheless, attraction to crime appears to mediate the relationship between strain/prior reinforcement and criminal outcomes. Yet, the results show variations among research sites, thus indicating that the part played by criminal motivation may be somewhat context dependent. Overall, the research suggests the wisdom of further attention to motivation, particularly in improving efforts to explain it, measure it directly, and bring it more prominently into explanatory models

Rational Choice and the Gender Gap in Crime: Establishing the Generality of Rational Choice Theory in Russia and Ukraine

Using data elicited from a random sample of 1435 adults residing in Lviv, Ukraine, and Nizhni Novgorod, Russia, this study tests rational choice theory (RCT) across gender groups. It seeks to determine whether men and women have different perceptions of sanction risk and crime rewards, whether the formation of these perceptions is gender-specific, and whether RCT predicts criminal behavior equally for men and women. Results suggest that, for both genders, perceptions of crime rewards appear more important than sanction threats. Furthermore, perceived rewards of crime, but not sanction threats, partially explain associations between offending and personal and vicarious experiences with crime. Finally, the performance of RCT is consistent, but not identical, in explaining crime by men and women. The gender gap in offending appears to reflect differences between men and women in levels of perceived rewards, most likely acquired through direct and vicarious experiences with crime as well as through gender-variant emotional bonds