Situational Action Theory Research Articles

An experimental test of Situational Action Theory of crime causation: Investigating the perception-choice process

Criminal action, according to Situational Action Theory (SAT), is a two-stage process consisting of a perception and a choice process. This Germany-wide vignette study (N = 3,088, participants recruited offline) provides an explicit and extensive test of these processes. It experimentally varied the informal moral context, deterrence (sanctions and detection risk), and possible gains of selling prescription drugs illegally in a 2x2x2×2 between-subject design. Personal morality and self-control were measured. Double-hurdle models show that personal morality served as a filter for the perception of criminal alternatives. Law-conforming moral context information, high self-control, and deterrence lowered the crime willingness. Thereby, this study underlines the usefulness of an explicit modeling of the dual-process of criminal conduct, in which certain antecedents only play a role in a certain process. While several findings corroborate assumptions from SAT, an influence of the informal moral context was only found in the choice process, not in the perception process.

Explaining cheating in schools with Situational Action Theory: Within-estimations using a German school panel

Wikström's Situational Action Theory (SAT) explains rule-breaking by reference to the cognitive perception-choice process, which indicates how a person's propensity to break rules interacts with the setting's criminogeneity. SAT's situational model claims that the interaction between personal morality and the moral norms of the setting, the so-called moral filter, is critical in the explanation of rule-breaking, and that the influence of self-control is subordinate to this process. Self-control becomes relevant when individuals whose personal morality discourages rule-breaking are exposed to settings in which the moral norms encourage rule-breaking, that is, if the moral filter is conflicted. Whereas most previous studies have equated the moral filter with personal morality, we consider the moral norms of the setting as well. This allows for a more rigorous test of the moral filter, and thus the conditionality of self-control. Here, we investigate student cheating, using data from two waves of a large-scale German school panel study, and we conceptualise the setting's moral norms by reference to the descriptive norm: other students’ cheating behaviour. This ensures the spatio-linkage between the setting's criminogeneity and rule-breaking, which is necessary for investigating SAT. Additionally, our estimation strategy – person and school fixed-effect models – controls for alternative explanations by the selection of people into settings with different levels of criminogeneity. Moreover, it controls for heterogeneity across persons and schools. The findings are in line with SAT's predictions. In cases of a correspondence between personal morality and the moral norms of a setting, students with rule-abiding morality are least likely to cheat, whereas students with a rule-breaking morality are the most likely to cheat. Also, in line with SAT, self-control only matters for students with rule-abiding morality when they are exposed to moral norms that encourage rule-breaking.

Does national moral context make a difference? A comparative test of Situational Action Theory

ABSTRACT This study examines whether Situational Action Theory (SAT) can explain variation in delinquent offending between countries grouped along shared moral values. Thirteen countries were categorised in terms of “contextual morality” according to results from the World Values Survey. Then, survey data from a cross-section of 12 to 16-year-old youths in the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD3) were employed to test hypotheses that SAT operates differently between countries in “low contextual morality” and “high contextual morality” clusters. Multivariate analyses reveal that SAT is a generalisable theory of offending, since criminal propensity, self-control and personal morality operate in both low and high contextual morality country clusters. While exposure to criminogenic influence is the most salient, it is significantly higher in the “high contextual morality” cluster, suggesting that delinquent behaviour is more frequent when there is inconsistency between personal morality and the broader moral context. We conclude with implications for theory and policy.

An examination of the interaction between low self-control and morality in delinquency: Test of key theoretical concepts of situational action theory

낮은 자기통제력과 청소년비행 또는 범죄와의 관련성에 대한 연구는 활발히 진행되어왔던 반면에, 낮은 자기통제력이 비행이나 범죄에 미치는 영향력에 있어 도덕성이 과연 이러한 효과를 완충하고 억제할 수 있는 기제로 작용할 수 있는가에 대한 경험적 연구는 상대적으로 미흡하다. 따라서 본 연구는 상황적 행동이론에 기초하여 청소년비행에 있어 낮은 자기통제력과 도덕성의 상호작용 효과를 검증하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 2009년 한국형사정책연구원에서 수행한 「저연령 소년의 비행실태 조사」데이터를 활용하였으며, 총 1,053명의 표본에 대하여 회귀분석을 실시하였다. 분석결과, 낮은 자기통제력이 청소년비행에 미치는 영향력은 개인의 도덕성 수준에 따라 달라지는 것으로 나타났다. 특히, 도덕성이 낮은 청소년의 경우 낮은 자기통제력이 비행에 유의미한 영향력을 행사하는 것으로 나타났던 반면, 도덕성이 높은 집단의 경우 낮은 자기통제력과 비행 간에는 유의미한 관계가 없는 것으로 나타났다. 이를 토대로 청소년비행을 감소하기 위한 정책적 함의 및 시사점을 논의하였다.

The maturing moral perception of crime: The development of moral correspondence and its association with emerging adults’ delinquent involvement

Abstract Purpose: This study scrutinizes Situational Action Theory’s (SAT) implications of how internal and external criminogenic factors concerning the rule of moral correspondence develop conjointly over the life-course and how this affects offending during emerging adulthood.Objectives: The main objective is to empirically explore whether the development of moral correspondence displays heterogeneity that can be theoretically linked to heterogeneous offending developments. Additionally, the paper also discusses unexpected co-occurrences arising specifically for the new opportunity structures to commit crimes in emerging adulthood via the broader developmental perspective proposed by the Developmental Ecological Action model of SAT (DEA).Methods: Results from two separate classification models (latent class growth analysis and repeated-measurement latent class analysis) following a German non-offender sample’s (N = 1810) transition between adolescence and emerging adulthood (ages 14 to 28) are cross-tabulated.Results: Five moral correspondence pathways differentiated by the timing, speed and completeness of achieving pro-social states can be extracted. The longer individuals resist this maturitation process during adolescence, the higher their chances are to follow a trajectory during emerging adulthood characterized by proclivities for youth crimes. However, these also follow a diminishing trend. Contrary, rising trajectories fueled by proclivities to commit adult crimes are less often associated by a remiss to maturity. Social selection into specific activity fields seems to play an important role in the availability and accessibility to either type of crime, thus, offering an explanation for these diverging results.Conclusion: SAT and its developmental framework DEA serve as useful blueprints to map the development of changes in crime and its related causes even with non-situational data through its analytical rigor to integrate micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of explanation.

Good People Commit Bad Deeds Together: A Factorial Survey on the Moral Antecedents of Situational Deviance in Peer Groups

ABSTRACT This article empirically tests the theoretical proposition that moral norms of groups can be the reason why “good” people sometimes do “the wrong thing.” The issue is approached from the perspective of Wikström’s Situational Action Theory (SAT). SAT posits that criminal acts are the result of features of the person and the setting. Building on this, the hypotheses forwarded are: The higher the morality of a person and the general moral norms of a setting, the lower the likelihood of committing a deviant action. Moreover, for settings including a group: The higher the moral group norms of the setting, the lower the likelihood of committing a deviant action. These hypotheses are tested by means of a factorial survey (N = 1,679). The results of the analysis using fixed effects restricted maximum likelihood regressions (multilevel models) suggest that moral group norms do, in fact, play a central role in the causation of crime.

Explaining Chinese Delinquency: Self-Control, Morality, and Criminogenic Exposure

This study extends the testing of situational action theory (SAT) to a Chinese population, and sheds new light on the directions of the moderation relationships between self-control and morality, and between crime propensity and criminogenic exposure on delinquency. Relying on a large, representative sample of middle school students from two areas of Guizhou, China ( N = 2,498), we find that both self-control and morality have significant inhibiting effects on delinquency. Moreover, self-control has a more profound curbing effect on delinquency among adolescents with higher levels of morality. Meanwhile, the promoting effect of crime propensity on delinquency decreases when levels of risky exposure increase. When adolescents have more unsupervised activities and delinquent peers, their crime propensity affects delinquency to a lesser extent. Our study confirms that individual and situational factors interlock in determining delinquency, and reiterates the value of empirical testing across cultures to validate and possibly improve general theories of crime.

Chapter 3 – Criminological Perspectives on the Toronto 18

Historically, research in terrorism studies has drawn from a variety of disciplines including, but not limited to, political science, psychology, and security studies. More recently, however, researchers have argued that criminological approaches can and should inform terrorism studies as well. In this chapter, we apply four criminological perspectives to the case of the Toronto 18: the general strain theory of terrorism, social learning theory, situational crime prevention, and situational action theory. Drawing from news media accounts and court documents as well as extensive personal and background details about the offenders, we examine what inspired members of the Toronto 18 to join the cell, as well as the internal dynamics of the cell and why they selected certain targets, all through a criminological lens. The complexities of the Toronto 18 cases clearly demonstrate why it would be unrealistic at best, and foolhardy at worst, to expect any single orientation to “explain” terrorism. But used in concert, criminological theories and perspectives clearly have a role to play in advancing our understanding of the dynamics of terrorism.

Moral Rules, Self-Control, and School Context: Additional Evidence on Situational Action Theory from 28 Countries

Moral Rules, Self-Control, and School Context: Additional Evidence on Situational Action Theory from 28 Countries

A Test of Situational Action Theory for Explaining the Moderating Effect of Self-Control and Deterrence in Digital Piracy: Comparing Download with Upload Behavior

A Test of Situational Action Theory for Explaining the Moderating Effect of Self-Control and Deterrence in Digital Piracy: Comparing Download with Upload Behavior

The association between child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency in the context of Situational Action Theory: Crime propensity and criminogenic exposure as mediators in a sample of European youth?

The current study investigates the association between physical child maltreatment and juvenile delinquent behavior in the context of the Situational Action Theory (SAT) (Wikström, 2006, 2017, 2020). Self-control, morality and exposure to criminogenic settings are proposed as possible mechanisms explaining the association between physical child maltreatment and adolescent offending. The hypotheses are tested in a subsample of the third wave of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD3), a large international non-clinical study on delinquency and victimization among adolescents. The final sample consists of N = 24,956 adolescents aged 12–16 years from nine West European countries. While controlling for dependence due to nested data and several covariates, the models are tested for overall offending and separately for violent and property offending. Results confirm that physical child maltreatment is associated with the main concepts of SAT (lower self-control; lower morality; and more exposure to criminogenic environments), which in turn are associated with juvenile delinquency. The models show partial mediation for overall offending, property offending and violent offending. The findings provide support for the theoretical prowess of SAT and its main concepts: self-control, morality and exposure to criminogenic settings as mediators in the well-established physical child maltreatment/delinquency link. These findings are consistent with the ‘cycle of violence’ perspective and contribute to the theoretical clarification of the mechanisms involved in the child maltreatment/delinquency link. The findings fail to confirm a ‘crime-specific propensity’. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for prevention.

HARD DRUG USE AMONG YOUTHS AND CULT VIOLENCE IN YENAGOA METROPOLIS, BAYELSA STATE - NIGERIA

The purpose of this work therefore was to examine factors that are responsible for hard drugs use among youths and how it has help in the rise of cult violence in Yenagoa metropolis of Bayelsa state, Nigeria. There are three competing theories for our theoretical framework- Routine activity theory (RAT), Rational choice theory (RCT) and Situational action theory (SAT), but we adopted the later. The study adopted the descriptive research design to survey 482,462 populations of Yenagoa metropolis, using the Taro- Yamane formula to draw a sample size of 400; purposive sampling technique was used in the study. The major instruments used in generating data for this study were questionnaire, observation and interview. The structured questionnaire titled: “Hard drugs use among youths and cultism in Yenagoa metropolis, Bayelsa state- Nigeria” (HDUAYACVIYMBSNQ). The collected data were analysed using the simple percentage and Chi-square (x2) statistical tool to test the various hypotheses. The study findings are as follows: (i)That there is a relationship between hard drugs used and increase in cult violence in the study area. (ii) That the more tramadol is used the more cultism will be on the rise and, (iii) That when tramadol is easily accessible to the youths, it influences violent behavior of the cultists in the study area Based on the above, the following recommendations were made: (i) that there is a need to fight against hard drugs use among youths (ii) that public enlightenment campaigns should be encouraged against the dangers of hard drugs use and cultism (iii) that there is need for parental discipline at home (iv) the need for religious discipline (v) that this research be extended to other geo-political zones and the scope broaden, deepened and widened. A number of references were finally made for further review.

Differential Self-control Effects: Moral Filtering and the Subsidiary Relevance of Self-control

Criminological research has identified low self-control as major cause of criminal activity. However, astonishingly little is known about the individual and situational characteristics that affect the functioning of self-control in relation to crime. Recent theorizing, especially in the context of Situational Action Theory, suggests that the interplay of personal and contextual morality creates a morally preselected choice set whose composition determines the relevance of self-control. Guided by the ideas of differential self-control effects and a moral filtering of action alternatives, the present inquiry investigates whether the role of self-control in crime causation depends on the power of moral factors to exclude crime from the set of the considered behavioral options. We argue that the significance of an individual’s capacity for self-control increases with a growing weakness of the moral filter, reaching its maximum when both personal and setting morality encourage criminal activity. Analyses of self-report data on adolescent vandalism delinquency provide support for differential self-control effects. The general picture is that self-control ability matters most when the strength of the moral filter hits a low, which is when both an individual’s own moral rules and the moral norms of the setting facilitate offending. Further evidence suggests that crime contemplation is highest when individual morality and setting morality jointly encourage vandalism. There is also indication that trait self-control has a greater effect on vandalism delinquency at higher levels of crime contemplation. All these results accord with the notion of a subsidiary relevance of control.

Dynamics of the Causes Of Crime: a Life-Course Application of Situational Action Theory for the Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood

PurposeAccording to the Developmental Ecological Action Model (DEA) of the situational action theory (SAT), changes in crime rates over the life-course are explained through personal (moral) maturation and socio-ecological selection. This assumption is empirically tested by comparing results for the conditioning effect of the principle of moral correspondence (as an essential part of SAT’s perception-choice process) on crime rates for the transition from adolescence to adulthood.MethodsComparing two waves of a German longitudinal study (CrimoC, 17 and 26 years old, n = 1738), a series of logistic and multinomial logistic regressions and ensuing estimated transition probabilities capture the cross-sectional but also developmental processes involved. Additionally, the CrimoC study offers a differential analysis of offending scales, separating offenses into youth and adult crimes.ResultsThe principle’s conditioning effect on crime could be replicated at both times. We can observe a general trend of individual transitions, which correspond to predicted personal maturation and socio-ecological selection. The transitions correlate with the expected reduction in crime rates over time. Males and females show comparable results. The separation into different offending scales yielded tentative insights.ConclusionWe found stability in the mechanisms leading to crime as proffered by SAT and DEA across time. Personal (moral) maturation and socio-ecological selection are likely to be the driving forces behind reducing crime in adulthood. Future research needs to explain in detail how life-course events influence these factors. Considering adult crimes in the analysis is a promising endeavor that warrants further investigation.

Understanding Information Security Policy Violation from a Situational Action Perspective

Insiders’ negligence or abuse is regarded as a leading cause of information security breaches in organizations. As most of the extant studies have largely examined insider threats at a high level of abstraction, the role of situational moral reasoning for information security policy (ISP) violations in specific situations has received little attention. To advance this line of research, this paper opens up a potentially fruitful path for IS researchers by applying situational action theory (SAT) to contextually examine why employees violate ISPs in particular situations. We consider the violations of password security policy, internet use policy, and confidential data security policy, and examine specific violation intents ranging from altruistic to malicious. The results support most of the assertions derived from SAT. We found situational moral beliefs to be the predominant driver for ISP violations across three situations in an organizational setting. However, the moderation effect of moral beliefs was only significant in situations involving sharing passwords and selling confidential data. Sanction certainty and sanction severity were also found to have different effects across situations. We conclude by presenting implications for IS security practitioners and suggestions for future research.

Individual and Environmental Explanations for Violent Extremist Intentions: A German Nationally Representative Survey Study

This study examines individual differences in violent extremist intentions. It combines key criminological theories and concepts including situational action theory, social learning theory, self-control, general strain theory and legal cynicism. We employ a conceptually integrated approach to studying extremism, which acknowledges the profound effect of person-environment reciprocity and, thereby, we aim to identify key individual, developmental and social mechanisms involved in the development of extremist propensities. The analytical framework is tested using structural equation modeling. The analysis is based on a German nationally representative survey (N = 1502) collected via Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). Representativity of the sample was achieved via a systematic and controlled approach of a multi-stratified probability sample (random-digit-dialing) in the dual-frame mode (landline telephone- households and mobile phone users). Results highlight that low law-relevant morality, low self-control, and exposure to extremism-promoting settings are associated with individuals’ readiness to engage in violent extremism. The relationship between legal morality, self-control and violent extremism is further mediated by exposure to extremist peers. We thereby identify exposure to extremist settings as a key mechanism, which stresses the importance of including social environmental factors in the explanation of violent extremism. The proximate determinants are further related to a series of distal factors, such as perceived individual and collective strains and personal alienation.

Reconceptualising parental monitoring within a model of goal-directed parental action

The concept and operationalisation of parental monitoring in adolescent behavioural research is idiosyncratic, and often conflates multiple concepts. This hinders study and understanding of its role in the distinct processes of adolescent development and behaviour. This paper introduces a model of Goal-Directed Parental Action, applied to adolescent crime, in order to situate and thus define the concept of parental monitoring. This model draws on Situational Action Theory to both prioritise motivation and specify a parental action process. This process distinguishes parental goals from the means by which to achieve them and from the knowledge gathering required to evaluate progress towards such goals. Within this framework, parental monitoring is defined as the employment of active information-gathering behaviours by parents to help them to gain knowledge about and evaluate their child's progress towards a range of parentally selected developmental and behavioural goals. In addition to facilitating this definition of parental monitoring, the model of Goal-Directed Parental Action has future potential to clarify other parenting concepts and processes.

The nature and role of morality in situational action theory

For situational action theory (SAT), morality is key to the definition of crime and the explanation for why and how acts of crime happen: acts of crime are acts of moral rule-breaking and personal morality guides individuals’ perception of moral rule-breaking as an option before controls become relevant. However, the nature and role of morality in SAT can be misread. Within this article I respond to misinterpretations of the theory by elaborating and adding further context to the concept of morality in SAT. I contend that the root of misunderstanding is grounded in alternative assumptions regarding human nature: SAT assumes a fundamentally rule-guided human nature, whereas the prevailing view within criminology is that people are primarily self-interested. In this article I delineate SAT’s assumption of a rule-guided human nature and set out how this assumption informs the definition of crime and personal morality in the theory. I further specify the nature and role of morality in the perception of action alternatives, and in so doing distinguish SAT from theories that view constraint as the measure of morality. Finally, I develop and clarify SAT’s position on the relationship between morality and the law.

Rational Choice, Personal Norms, Social Norms and Intention to Commit Resume Fraud

Referring to rational choice theory, theory of planned behavior, situational action theory, and model of frame selection, the study examines the effects of rational choice variables, social (subjective) norms, and personal (moral) norms on a sample of 286 associate degree graduants’ intention to misrepresent information on their resumes with a view to identifying ways to curb the problem. Participants were asked to indicate their likelihood of fabricating, embellishing, and omitting information on their resumes in response to a hypothetical recruitment advertisement. Their perceived benefits/costs of resume fraud as well as the respective probabilities of occurrence, perceived social norms and personal norms were measured. Results found that only perceived benefits (but not perceived costs or the probabilities of occurrence) and personal norms (but not social norms) had direct effects on intention to commit resume fraud. The findings suggest that while job applicants are utilitarian, their rationality is bounded, and they only use limited information in making relevant decisions. Personal norms also moderated the effect of perceived benefits on resume fraud, with effect of perceived benefits much weakened among those with higher personal norms. The results cast doubt on the use of deterrence measures to curb resume fraud. On the other hand, the importance of business ethics education is highlighted.

Situational Action Theory and School Bullying: Rethinking the Moral Filter

Utilizing a sample from Chinese schools, we test the key ingredients of Situational Action Theory within the context of school bullying in a non-Western culture. The results show that morality has a robust effect on bullying behaviors, whereas control mechanisms (i.e., self-control and deterrence) have little restraining effect when personal morality is low. Our findings, together with prior mixed findings regarding conditional effects of control mechanisms, suggest that the moral filter may work differently for behaviors associated with different levels of stigmatization. We speculate that, for less stigmatized behaviors, “habitualization” easily materialize but “moral exclusion” does not, and thus controls exert stronger impact when morality is higher. Implications for the theory and directions for future research are discussed.