Review of Per-Olof Wikstrom et al., Breaking Rules: The Social and Situational Dynamics of Young People’s Urban Crime

Abstract

In Breaking Rules: The Social and Situational Dynamics of Young People’s Urban Crime, the authors examine the interactive elements that attempt to explain the commission of crime among youth within the context of specific locations. By examining the social structure of an urban setting in the United Kingdom, the text offers insightful information and research associated with the relative value of the Situational Action Theory within the context of criminological theory. This includes a number of methodological aspects including the descriptive and research characteristics related to criminological exposure and propensities. A key component of the text underscores the relationship between youth activity, exposure to criminogenic settings, and the existence of criminal activity within certain locations through the use of space-time analysis and perception-choice processes. In chapter 1, entitled Situational Action Theory, the authors establish a premise for the efficacy associated with the situational action theory (SAT) by discussing the incoherent and fundamental deficiencies that exist within criminological theory. To begin this assessment, various concepts and assumptions of the SAT are identified along with a number of individual, environmental, and situational factors related to the commission of crime and delinquent behavior. The basis of utilizing the SAT theory in relation to youth crime offers a perspective which proposes that the commission of offensive behavior is a result of perception, interaction, criminal propensity, and exposure. This lends itself into a more extensive description of the causes of deviant behavior through the analysis of perception and social interaction. The chapter concludes by comparing the use of the SAT along with a number of key foundational theories (i.e., social disorganization, routine activity) as well as the importance of incorporating both social and situational aspects in the explanation of deviant behavior. Chapters 2 and 3, entitled The Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study and Young People’s Crime, Crime Propensity, and Criminogenic Exposure: Key Constructs and Basic Findings, presents the research methods associated with the investigation of the behavior of youth within a city (Peterborough) in the United Kingdom. This begins with a discussion regarding the rationale associated with the selection of the location Asian Criminology (2014) 9:245–248 DOI 10.1007/s11417-013-9171-5