Crime Opportunity Theories: Routine Activity, Rational Choice and their Variants

Opportunity theories of crime seek to explain the occurrence of crime rather than simply the existence of criminal dispositions. They emphasize the fundamental element in the criminal act of opportunity: how this arises, how it is perceived, evaluated and acted on by those with criminal dispositions. This volume brings together influential research articles on opportunity theories of crime by leading theorists such as Cohen and Felson on routine activity theory and Clarke and Cornish on the bounded rational choice perspective. The articles also include more recent theoretical developments and studies of situational crime prevention of specific twenty-first century crimes. These articles attest to the sheer volume as well to as the richness and the variety of work designed to reduce crime that has forever changed the face of criminology and criminal justice.

Contents: Introduction; Part I Theorizing Situational Determinants of Crime: Delinquency, environment and intervention, R.V.G. Clark; The situational analysis of crime and deviance, Christopher Birkbeck and Gary LaFree; Routine activities and individual deviant behavior, Wayne D. Osgood, Janet. K. Wilson, Patrick M. O'Malley, Jerald G. Bachman and Lloyd D. Johnston. Part II The Production of Criminal Opportunities: Routine Activity Theory: Human ecology and crime: a routine activity approach, Marcus Felson and Lawrence E. Cohen; Routine activities and crime prevention in the developing metropolis, Marcus Felson; Routine activities and involvement in violence as actor, witness, or target, Richard B. Felson; The demand and supply of criminal opportunities, Philip J. Cook. Part III Deciding to Commit Crime: the Rational Choice Perspective: Modeling offenders' decisions: a framework for research and policy, Ronald V. Clarke and Derek B. Cornish; Understanding crime displacement: an application of rational choice theory, Derek B. Cornish and Ronald V. Clarke; A descriptive model of the hunting process of serial sex offenders: a rational choice perspective, Eric Beauregard, D. Kim Rossmo and Jean Proulx; Serendipity in robbery target selection, Bruce A. Jacobs; Organized fraud and organizing frauds: unpacking research on networks and organization, Michael Levi; Parameters for software piracy research, Clyde W. Holsapple, Deepak Iyengar, Haihao Jin and Shashank Rao. Part IV 'Bounded' Rational Choice: Good Enough or Not Enough: Rational choice, deterrence, and social learning theory in criminology: the path not taken, Ronald L. Akers; Situational crime prevention and its discontents: rational choice theory versus the 'culture of now', Keith Hayward; Situational crime prevention and its discontents: rational choice and harm reduction versus 'cultural criminology', Graham Farrell; Karl Popper: a philosopher for Ronald Clarke's situational crime prevention, Nick Tilley. Part