Beyond Risk Factors: An Analytical Approach to Crime Prevention

Abstract

The overall aim of this chapter is to apply situational action theory (SAT) to the problem of crime prevention. We will briefly highlight some key shortcomings of contemporary crime prevention (e.g., problems with risk-focused prevention and the weak evidence-base), present the basic assumptions and explanatory propositions of SAT (Wikstrom in The explanation of crime: context, mechanisms and development, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 61–107, 2006, When crime appears: the role of emergence, Routledge, New York, pp 53–72, 2011a, Analytical sociology: actions and networks, Wiley, West Sussex, pp 74–94, 2014), and apply the theory to the problem of creating a foundation for the development of effective crime prevention policies and practices. The purpose is not to produce a ‘what works’ publication, listing purported ‘risk factors’ (e.g., Welsh and Farrington in Preventing crime: what works for children, offenders, victims and places, Springer, Netherlands, pp 1–17, 2006) and discussing one by one their evidence-base (e.g., Sherman et al. in Evidence-based crime prevention. Revised edition, Routledge, London, 2006; Greenwood in Changing lives: delinquency prevention as crime-control policy, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2006), or suggesting a ‘toolkit’ of different techniques to address particular crime problems (e.g., Smith and Clarke in The oxford handbook of crime prevention. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 291–315, 2012). There are already plenty of important publications of this kind. Instead the objective is to present a knowledge-based theoretical frame of reference that can underpin and guide the development and organization of crime prevention practise. We propose moving towards a more analytical approach, using SAT as a guiding framework for understanding which factors exert a causal influence on crime involvement and, importantly how they do so—the causal mechanism. We propose that using this framework policy makers and practitioners can better assess which of all suggested risk factors are implicated in crime causation (and how) and, building on this, devise policies and interventions based on how we can stop those factors from causing crime (intervene in the causal mechanism). We suggest that a more analytical, mechanism-based approach to crime prevention can help advance prevention science beyond risk factors and better guide the development and implementation of effective crime prevention practices.