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.
- Originator
- Ronald Clarke
- Theoretical basis
- Rational choice theory
- Focus
- Crime settings, not offender disposition
- Method
- Opportunity-reduction techniques
Common questions
How does situational crime prevention differ from offender-focused approaches?+
Rather than trying to change why an individual is motivated to offend, situational crime prevention alters the immediate physical or social environment so that a given crime becomes harder, riskier, less rewarding, or less excusable to carry out in that specific setting.
What is a common criticism made against situational crime prevention?+
Critics argue it can simply displace crime to a different location, time, target, or method rather than reducing overall offending, though research on displacement effects has found the effect is often partial rather than total.
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...