Environmental criminology – Sidebottom and Wortley
(I) Historical and conceptual foundations of environmental criminology
Environmental criminology = concerned with crime rather than criminality. Study of crime
events and crime patterns in terms of proximal environmental risk factors.
Criminological roots
Residential areas closest to the center of the city, population under greatest economic and
social pressure and where crime opportunities abound highest crime rates
1971-1986: golden age of environmental criminology
Psychological roots
We need to show that immediate environments have a significant effect on the way
individuals act in particular situations.
Fundamental attribution error = de neiging bedoeld om gedragingen van anderen toe te
schrijven aan hun persoonlijkheid of hun karakter. “He is angry, because he has a hostile
personality’’
Michel: internal traits are poor predictors of behavior. The behavior-specifity model:
individuals do possess traits, those are expressed under certain prescribed conditions.
- Zimbardo Stanford Prison experiment
Criminal behavior is not solely the province of
- Milgram electric shock study
‘bad’ people, but is a potential outcome for
‘normal’ people under conducive conditions
(II) Key perspectives in environmental criminology
3 perspectives considered to form the bedrock of e.c.:
Routine activity approach – the conditions
o Explains how macro-level social factors effect the daily routines of citizens, and
how these routines in turn are responsible for variations in crime rates over
space and time.
o Crime is dependent on more than simply criminals; rather it requires a
convergence in space and time of a likely offender, a suitable target, without the
presence of suitable guardians. increase in daytime burglary, increase sexual
harassment in warm weather
o RAA sets out the chemistry of crime: those elements that must be present for
crime to occur.
Crime pattern theory – where and when
o Considers how offenders locate or encounter crime opportunities as part of their
routine activities. Interested in the spatial patterns of crime in the urban
landscape. Meso-level.
o Human mobility patterns are non-random. Awareness spaces=> offenders
commit crime within their awareness spaces since it is in these areas that they
are likely to possess knowledge about available crime targets and other factors.
o 4 kinds of location at which crime is more likely to occur:
Crime generator: a location that attracts large numbers of people for
legitimate purposes e.g. nightclub, shopping mall, sports stadium etc.
Crime attractor: a location that draws potential offenders for the specific
purpose of committing crime e.g. drug markets, red-light districts etc.
Crime enabler: a location at which there is little regulation of behavior,
there is an absence of capable guardians e.g. car parks, playgrounds etc.
Edge: boundary between neighborhoods or district that individuals
encounter at the fringe or their nodes or paths e.g. physical barriers such
as rivers or two completely different neighborhoods.
o Offender generally will not travel far from their nodes in order to commit crime.
Rational choice perspective – decision making progress
o A micro-level account of the role of immediate environments in specific crime
locations. The mechanism through which opportunity leads to deviant behavior.
(I) Historical and conceptual foundations of environmental criminology
Environmental criminology = concerned with crime rather than criminality. Study of crime
events and crime patterns in terms of proximal environmental risk factors.
Criminological roots
Residential areas closest to the center of the city, population under greatest economic and
social pressure and where crime opportunities abound highest crime rates
1971-1986: golden age of environmental criminology
Psychological roots
We need to show that immediate environments have a significant effect on the way
individuals act in particular situations.
Fundamental attribution error = de neiging bedoeld om gedragingen van anderen toe te
schrijven aan hun persoonlijkheid of hun karakter. “He is angry, because he has a hostile
personality’’
Michel: internal traits are poor predictors of behavior. The behavior-specifity model:
individuals do possess traits, those are expressed under certain prescribed conditions.
- Zimbardo Stanford Prison experiment
Criminal behavior is not solely the province of
- Milgram electric shock study
‘bad’ people, but is a potential outcome for
‘normal’ people under conducive conditions
(II) Key perspectives in environmental criminology
3 perspectives considered to form the bedrock of e.c.:
Routine activity approach – the conditions
o Explains how macro-level social factors effect the daily routines of citizens, and
how these routines in turn are responsible for variations in crime rates over
space and time.
o Crime is dependent on more than simply criminals; rather it requires a
convergence in space and time of a likely offender, a suitable target, without the
presence of suitable guardians. increase in daytime burglary, increase sexual
harassment in warm weather
o RAA sets out the chemistry of crime: those elements that must be present for
crime to occur.
Crime pattern theory – where and when
o Considers how offenders locate or encounter crime opportunities as part of their
routine activities. Interested in the spatial patterns of crime in the urban
landscape. Meso-level.
o Human mobility patterns are non-random. Awareness spaces=> offenders
commit crime within their awareness spaces since it is in these areas that they
are likely to possess knowledge about available crime targets and other factors.
o 4 kinds of location at which crime is more likely to occur:
Crime generator: a location that attracts large numbers of people for
legitimate purposes e.g. nightclub, shopping mall, sports stadium etc.
Crime attractor: a location that draws potential offenders for the specific
purpose of committing crime e.g. drug markets, red-light districts etc.
Crime enabler: a location at which there is little regulation of behavior,
there is an absence of capable guardians e.g. car parks, playgrounds etc.
Edge: boundary between neighborhoods or district that individuals
encounter at the fringe or their nodes or paths e.g. physical barriers such
as rivers or two completely different neighborhoods.
o Offender generally will not travel far from their nodes in order to commit crime.
Rational choice perspective – decision making progress
o A micro-level account of the role of immediate environments in specific crime
locations. The mechanism through which opportunity leads to deviant behavior.
