![]() ![]() ![]() However, offenders in organized crime, in the first place, seem to be more resourceful in a way that makes them less dependent on any given opportunity structure in time and space. Perhaps it is true that much street crime can be prevented, if motivated offenders, suitable targets, and the absence of capable guardians do not converge in time and space. However, Von Lampe ( 2011) comments that the situational model does not seem to fit properly for organized crime activities. Instead of focusing upon criminal groups, the focus lies on criminal activities and opportunity structures. Offender convergence settings are locations where offenders may find co-offenders and which allow criminal cooperation to persist even when the particular persons vary (Felson 2006: 97–99 Kleemans and Van de Bunt 2008).Ĭentral to the situational approach is a general disbelief that criminal groups and criminal organizations are that important in explaining organized crime. It has enriched the organized crime literature with concepts such as ‘opportunity structures’, ‘crime scripts’, and ‘offender convergence settings’. The situational approach conceptualizes organized criminal activity as sets of criminal events. Examples of this approach involve drugs smuggling, contraband cigarettes, sex trafficking, organized timber theft, mortgage fraud, and infiltration in the public construction industry (Bullock et al. This way barriers for the commission of organized crime can be discovered and developed, similar to the ‘twenty-five techniques of situational crime prevention’, which are aimed at increasing the effort, increasing the risks, reducing the rewards, reducing provocations, or removing excuses. Cornish and Clarke ( 2002) state that the problem analysis starts with unpacking the sets of ‘crime scripts’ involved, as these will reveal the opportunity structures that enable the activities involved. It is not focused upon organized crime in general, yet it concentrates on, for example, cocaine smuggling or preferably even more specific activities or events, such as passengers smuggling swallowed ‘balloons’ of cocaine on transnational flights. Situational analysis is ‘crime specific’. Several authors have applied the situational approach to organized crime, with a specific focus upon opportunities for crime prevention (for a review, see Bullock et al. It is interesting to note that this situational perspective already had a history in the study of the logistics of organized crime (Sieber and Bögel 1993), a pioneering study by the German Bundeskriminalamt. 2010) and terrorism (Clarke and Newman 2006). Later on, the situational approach was transplanted from the study of ordinary crime to consensual crimes such as organized crime (Cornish and Clarke 2002 Van de Bunt and Van der Schoot 2003 Levi and Maguire 2004 Soudijn and Kleemans 2009 Bullock et al. Originally situational crime analysis was mainly focused on ordinary crime, particularly predatory offenses such as burglary, robbery, et cetera, with a clearly defined ‘suitable target’ and one or more predatory offenders. Cohen and Felson 1979 Felson 1994, 2006).Įach type of crime imposes different requirements and can be analyzed from a situational perspective. ![]() Similarly, Felson has analyzed meticulously how routine activities influence the convergence in time and space of motivated offenders and suitable targets, in the absence of capable guardians, and what this means for crime prevention (e.g. increasing the effort, increasing the risks, reducing the rewards, reducing provocation, and removing excuses (for an overview, see e.g. In various publications, Clarke has explained-mainly based on a rational choice perspective on offending-the techniques of situational crime prevention: e.g. If crime needs the convergence in time and space of a motivated offender, a suitable target, and absence of a capable guardian (the ‘crime triangle’), this means that crime can be prevented by keeping motivated offenders away from suitable targets at specific points in time and space or by increasing the presence of capable guardians. Furthermore, studies by Clarke, Felson and others have demonstrated how situational crime analysis may help us to identify circumstances which facilitate crime as well as viable opportunity-reducing measures, regardless of the motivation of offenders (e.g. One of the major contributions of Ronald Clarke and Marcus Felson to criminology is shifting the focus of some criminologists from a preoccupation with offenders to a detailed analysis of criminal events and criminal activities.
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