Poster #161 - Entangled Pathways to Crime: When Traits, Situations, and Unstable Worlds Collide

• In Event: ASC Poster Session I

Abstract

Understanding why individuals engage in crime has long been a central concern in both psychology and criminology. Much of the existing literature treats personality as a static risk factor, offering limited insight into how traits translate into behaviors across time and context. We unpack the personality–crime process by offering a multi-level framework—building on work in personality science—that traces how delinquent behavior emerges from three interconnected components: (1) dispositional influences, which shape individual vulnerabilities and the processes of situation selection and perception; (2) situational influences, which activate context-sensitive mindsets and influence decision-making; and (3) macro-structural environments, which form the ecological backdrop in which both traits and situations unfold—particularly during adolescence, when personality is more malleable and responsive to contextual forces. This framework positions delinquency as the contingent outcome of a dynamic person-in-context process.

Authors

• Ranran Li, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law

• Reinout De Vries, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Jean-Louis van Gelder, Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law