Daders
Week 1: Dadertheorieën
Sneaky Thrills
Various property crimes share an appeal to young people, independent of material gain or esteem
from peers. Qualitative accounts of initial experience in property crime by the poorest ghetto youths
also show an exciting attraction that cannot be explained by material necessity. A common thread
running through vandalism, joyriding, and shoplifting is that all are sneaky crimes that frequently
thrill their practitioners. The sneaky thrill is created when a person (1) tacitly generates the
experience of being seduced to deviance, (2) reconquers her emotions in a concentration dedicated
to the production of normal appearances, (3) and then appreciates the reverberating significance of
her accomplishment in a euphoric skill.
During the initial stage of constructing a sneaky thrill, it is more accurate to say that the objective is
to be taken or struck by an object than to take or strike out at it.
It appears that the origin of the seductive power of the objects is in the person’s origination of the
deviant character of the event. “It would be so easy” signals to her not simply that no external
obstacles stand firmly in the way, but a secret, internal desire to be deviant. The person’s fascination
with the particularly attractive features of the object is the outside of the person’s fascination in
discovering his or her deviant creativity.
Sneaky thieves are avoiding, or getting away with by not being caught, is the shame they would feel
if they were caught. To young thieves, being caught is an experience of degradation. Just as success
van bring a thrill to one’s entire being, so failure can threaten one’s moral existence.
Store detectives report that the most frequent question women ask is, “Will my husband have t
know about this?” Men, they say, express immediate fear that their employers will be informed of
their arrest. Children are apprehensive of parental reaction.
The thrills of sneaky thrills are metaphysically complex matters. On the one hand, shoplifters and
vandals know what they are doing is illegal; the deviant character of the practice is part of its appeal.
The Chemistry for Crime
Emotional ups and downs are more common for people who commit a lot of crime. Both occasional
offenders and overactive offenders are influenced by specific situations. To understand how that
happens, we first have to recognise three different crime situations:
1. Predatory crimes, with one person attacking the person or property of another.
2. Consensual crimes, with two people cooperating to break the law.
3. Fighting, with two conflicting parties that both act illegally.
All three crime types depend on how people mix in the course of a day. The mixing in turn depends
on the activities people engage in and the locations where they do so.
It is very important for criminologists to learn how much time young people spend in different
settings, whether parents know what hey are doing, what they do in each setting and what happens
to them. A setting is a place for recurrent behaviour at known times. A crime setting is where people
converge or diverge in a special way that influences their crime opportunities. Risky settings include:
Public routes (esp foot paths, parking facilities, and unsupervised transit areas)
Recreation settings (esp bars and some parks)
Public transport (esp stations)
Retail stores (esp for shoplifting)
Residential settings (esp for burglary and theft)
Educational settings (esp outside or on their edges)
Week 1: Dadertheorieën
Sneaky Thrills
Various property crimes share an appeal to young people, independent of material gain or esteem
from peers. Qualitative accounts of initial experience in property crime by the poorest ghetto youths
also show an exciting attraction that cannot be explained by material necessity. A common thread
running through vandalism, joyriding, and shoplifting is that all are sneaky crimes that frequently
thrill their practitioners. The sneaky thrill is created when a person (1) tacitly generates the
experience of being seduced to deviance, (2) reconquers her emotions in a concentration dedicated
to the production of normal appearances, (3) and then appreciates the reverberating significance of
her accomplishment in a euphoric skill.
During the initial stage of constructing a sneaky thrill, it is more accurate to say that the objective is
to be taken or struck by an object than to take or strike out at it.
It appears that the origin of the seductive power of the objects is in the person’s origination of the
deviant character of the event. “It would be so easy” signals to her not simply that no external
obstacles stand firmly in the way, but a secret, internal desire to be deviant. The person’s fascination
with the particularly attractive features of the object is the outside of the person’s fascination in
discovering his or her deviant creativity.
Sneaky thieves are avoiding, or getting away with by not being caught, is the shame they would feel
if they were caught. To young thieves, being caught is an experience of degradation. Just as success
van bring a thrill to one’s entire being, so failure can threaten one’s moral existence.
Store detectives report that the most frequent question women ask is, “Will my husband have t
know about this?” Men, they say, express immediate fear that their employers will be informed of
their arrest. Children are apprehensive of parental reaction.
The thrills of sneaky thrills are metaphysically complex matters. On the one hand, shoplifters and
vandals know what they are doing is illegal; the deviant character of the practice is part of its appeal.
The Chemistry for Crime
Emotional ups and downs are more common for people who commit a lot of crime. Both occasional
offenders and overactive offenders are influenced by specific situations. To understand how that
happens, we first have to recognise three different crime situations:
1. Predatory crimes, with one person attacking the person or property of another.
2. Consensual crimes, with two people cooperating to break the law.
3. Fighting, with two conflicting parties that both act illegally.
All three crime types depend on how people mix in the course of a day. The mixing in turn depends
on the activities people engage in and the locations where they do so.
It is very important for criminologists to learn how much time young people spend in different
settings, whether parents know what hey are doing, what they do in each setting and what happens
to them. A setting is a place for recurrent behaviour at known times. A crime setting is where people
converge or diverge in a special way that influences their crime opportunities. Risky settings include:
Public routes (esp foot paths, parking facilities, and unsupervised transit areas)
Recreation settings (esp bars and some parks)
Public transport (esp stations)
Retail stores (esp for shoplifting)
Residential settings (esp for burglary and theft)
Educational settings (esp outside or on their edges)
