Explaining Crime and Criminal Careers: the DEA Model of Situational Action Theory

Funder: University of CambridgeAbstract: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to outline Situational Action Theory (SAT) and its Developmental Ecological Action Model (DEA model) as applied to the explanation of criminal careers. The DEA model of SAT was first presented by Wikström in 2005, [34]), and subsequently refined in Wikström and Treiber in 2018, [43]), and is further elaborated in this paper. Methods: This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the role of crime causation in the explanation of criminal careers and pathways in crime. The central argument is that if we want to explain stability and change in people’s crime involvement we first have to understand what factors and processes move people to commit acts of crime. Only then can we adequately assess what factors and processes are involved in the explanation of criminal careers and people’s differential pathways (trajectories) in crime. Results: The DEA model of SAT address some of the main limitations of current dominant explanatory approaches in Developmental and Life-Course (DLC) Criminology [39], and champions a general, dynamic and mechanism-based account of the causes of crime [38], and the drivers of criminal careers [47]. It integrates and extends key insights from two great but poorly amalgamated traditions in the study of crime and its causes: the individual/developmental and ecological/environmental traditions. It provides a new approach to the study and explanation of crime and criminal careers with implications for how we approach the problem of crime prevention policy and practise

Social Disadvantage and Crime: A Criminological Puzzle

In this article, we analyze the relationship between social disadvantage and crime, starting from the paradox that most persistent offenders come from disadvantaged backgrounds, but most people from disadvantaged backgrounds do not become persistent offenders. We argue that despite the fact that social disadvantage has been a key criminological topic for some time, the mechanisms which link it to offending remain poorly specified. Drawing on situational action theory, we suggest social disadvantage is linked to crime because more people from disadvantaged versus affluent backgrounds develop a high crime propensity and are exposed to criminogenic contexts, and the reason for this is that processes of social and self-selection place the former more frequently in (developmental and action) contexts conducive to the development and expression of high crime propensities. This article will explore this hypothesis through a series of analyses using data from the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+), a longitudinal study which uses a range of data collection methods to study the interaction between personal characteristics and social environments. It pays particular attention to the macro-to-micro processes behind the intersection of people with certain characteristics and environments with certain features – i.e., their exposure – which leads to their interaction.This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/K010646/1

Por qué se delinque: una teoría de la acción situacional

Las personas cometen actos delictivos porque perciben y eligen (de forma habitual o tras alguna deliberación) una determinada clase de acto delictivo como una alternativa de acción en respuesta a una motivación específica (una tentación o una provocación). Las personas son la fuente de sus acciones, pero las causas de las mismas son situacionales. Determinadas combinaciones de clases de personas (propensiones personales) y de clases de contextos (inductores ambientales) promueven la percepción de determinadas clases de alternativas de acción y determinadas elecciones (algunas de las cuales pueden dar lugar a una acción que vulnera las reglas legales) en respuesta a una motivación concreta (tentaciones o provocaciones). Por ejemplo, una persona con poco dinero que encuentra una cartera repleta del mismo en un vestuario vacío ve esto como una oportunidad de sustraer dinero; otros no

SNX10 gene mutation leading to osteopetrosis with dysfunctional osteoclasts

Acknowledgements We sincerely thank the patients and family members who participated in this study. We would also like to thank Stefan Esher, Umeå University, for help with genealogy, and Anna Westerlund for excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by grants from the FOU, at the Umeå university hospital, and the Medical Faculty at Umeå University. The work at University of Gothenburg was supported by grants from The Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Rheumatism Association, the Royal 80-Year Fund of King Gustav V, ALF/LUA research grant from Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg and the Lundberg Foundation. The work at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Aberdeen was supported by Euroclast, a Marie Curie FP7-People-2013-ITN: # 607446.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Combined Roles of Moral Emotion and Moral Rules in Explaining Acts of Violence Using a Situational Action Theory Perspective

The roles of shame and guilt, and their relationships to empathy, have not been modeled adequately as key factors in moral decision-making in the study of violence. The role of moral emotion has been neglected in existing criminological research and this study seeks to develop current explanations of the comprehensive myriad of factors that play a role in moral crime decision-making. This research will test the different roles of empathy, shame, and guilt in violence decision-making using a situational action theory (SAT) perspective. Data taken from the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+), a longitudinal study with a large representative sample, provide quantitative questionnaire indices to enable comparison of a persistent and frequent violent offender subsample (N = 48) with the remaining PADS+ study sample (N = 607). A striking majority of violent offenders report that they do not think it is wrong to commit violence, and do not care about it, that is, they lack shame and guilt, and report that violence comes as a morally acceptable and natural action alternative. Furthermore, violent offenders do not register the predicament of their victims; there is a distinct lack of empathy. This article demonstrates a key finding which has rarely been explored to date; regression analyses reveal an interaction effect whereby individuals with weak shame and guilt, combined specifically with weak moral rules, are more likely to commit acts of violence. The study findings provide strong support for the SAT of the role of weak morality in violence decision-making. To reduce the possibility of crime being seen as an action alternative, moral development programs should be developed and administered in childhood

Fractionnement granulométrique de métaux dissous dans les eaux pluviales à Umeå, Suède

Colloque avec actes et comité de lecture. Internationale.International audienc

Towards the integration of functions, relations and types in an AI programming language

This paper describes the design and implementation of the programming language PC-Life. This language integrates the functional and the Logic-oriented programming style and feature types supporting inheritance. This combination yields a language particularly suited to knowledge representation, especially for application in computational linguistics