Situational crime prevention
Definition
A prevention approach, developed by Clarke, that uses opportunity-reduction techniques to make specific crimes harder, riskier, less rewarding, or less excusable. It targets crime settings rather than offender dispositions and is explicitly grounded in rational choice theory.
Related terms
- Capable guardian
- Any person or mechanism whose presence deters an offence. Guardians include neighbours, bystanders, CCTV, lighting, and patrols. Presence alone is sufficient: the...
- Crime triangle
- A visual tool, also called the problem analysis triangle, showing the three routine activity elements as the sides of a triangle. An...
- Rational choice theory
- A criminological theory, associated with Cornish and Clarke, that treats offending as purposive behaviour: offenders assess the rewards, costs, risks, and effort...
- Routine activity theory
- A criminological framework developed by Cohen and Felson (1979) that explains property crime as the product of three converging elements: a motivated...
- Suitable target
- In routine activity theory, a target whose value, inertia, visibility, and access (VIVA) make it attractive to an offender. Portable, valuable, and...
Explained in
- Rational Choice and Routine Activity TheoriesA prevention approach, developed by Clarke, that uses opportunity-reduction techniques to make specific crimes harder, riskier, less rewarding, or less excusab...