Opportunity structure
Definition
The set of environmental, social, and product conditions that make specific crimes more or less easy to commit. Situational prevention works by manipulating opportunity structures rather than offender dispositions.
Related terms
- 25 techniques
- Ronald Clarke's classification of situational crime prevention methods into 25 specific techniques organised under five mechanisms: increasing effort, increasing risk, reducing rewards,...
- CPTED
- Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. An applied design discipline using natural surveillance (sightlines, lighting), territorial reinforcement (ownership cues), natural access control (barriers,...
- Crime script analysis
- A method developed by Derek Cornish that maps the sequential steps an offender must complete to commit a particular crime type, from...
- Diffusion of benefits
- The spread of crime-reduction effects beyond the area or targets directly covered by an intervention. Offenders uncertain about the extent of a...
- Displacement
- The relocation of crime following a prevention intervention. Can take five forms: territorial (to another place), temporal (to another time), target (to...
Explained in
- Situational Crime PreventionThe set of environmental, social, and product conditions that make specific crimes more or less easy to commit. Situational prevention works by manipulating op...