Crime-Event Criminology

Abstract

Traditional criminology is overwhelmingly offender-focused, with the primary question driving the field being, “What explains variation in criminal behavior—why do some individuals offend while others do not?” This criminology, which seeks to unearth the underlying causes of offending, provides us with many theories. Each theory identifies a unique variable or set of variables thought to explain an individual’s inclination to offend, or “criminality.” For example, theories suggest that low selfcontrol, school failure, peer pressure, unemployment, and community poverty—to name just a few—predispose one toward offending. Thus, individuals exposed to higher levels of such variables are presumed to be “at risk” of initiating or continuing criminal behavior. Approaches to crime prevention often follow suit by attempting to reduce or prevent criminality. In particular, (social) developmental crime prevention focuses on tackling the underlying risk factors for becoming an offender (e.g., Welsh & Farrington, 2012). Indeed, a whole host of programs or policies exist in an attempt to reverse the criminogenic risk factors identified by traditional criminological theories. Programs teaching social competency to youth, providing pre-school education to disadvantaged children, and (re)training potential employees for workforce demands are just but a few examples. A number of such programs have been shown to be at least modestly successful in reducing crime (see, for example, Losel & Bender, 2012; Schindler & Yoshikawa, 2012; Sherman et al., 1997). Still, the potential risk factors for offending are incredibly numerous, as indicated by the dauntingly long list of criminological theories. In fact, the recently published Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory documented nearly 300 such theories (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010). With so many potential causes of offending—and, thus, so many risk factors to address if criminality is to be prevented—it is no wonder that a significant number of individuals fall through the