The Relation between ‘the Selection of kinds-of-people into kinds-of-setting’ and ‘the Interplay between person and setting’ in the explanation and investigation of rule-breaking

• In Event: Rigours Testing in Criminological Research

Abstract

Rule-breaking could be disentangled into two mechanisms: the selection mechanism and the action-generating mechanism. The action-generating mechanism is well regarded in theories of action, e.g., Situational Action Theory, and explains on a situational level how a person’s crime propensity and a situation’s criminogeneity interact in the occurrence of rule-breaking. This strand of explanation assumes that people with high- and low crime propensity could be observed while they are exposed to situations characterized by high- and low criminogenic. However, some combinations between crime propensity and criminogeneity are rarely or never observed, challenging prior findings on the interaction between crime propensity and the setting. The allocation of kinds-of-people in kinds-of-exposure is due to the selection of people into different situations. People and situations match e.g., due to their preferences for different leisure-time activities and friends, or their exposure to different neighborhoods. We investigate the relation between selection factors, which connect the person with the situation, and a person’s crime propensity by assuming that they are associated, f.e. due to common causes. Our simulations show the connectedness between selection factors and crime propensity and the threshold from which a situational explanation must give way in favor of a selection-based explanation.

Authors

• André Ernst, Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne

• Alexander Trinidad, Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne