ABSTRACT
The origins and foundations of criminal opportunity theory can be traced to the birth of criminology in the eighteenth century. This chapter identifies criminal opportunity theory's basic assumptions, concepts, and propositions. The concept of criminal opportunity functions as a deus ex machina; that is, crime is said to spring forth from opportunity but systematic conceptualizations and theorizing about opportunity as such are largely absent. Given that opportunity is an assumed necessary condition for crime, and given that it is a theoretical black box in that the details of its inner workings are unspecified and unexamined, it seems reasonable to advance a conceptual framework that takes criminal opportunity as its central focus. The chapter focuses on two major influences: routine activities and social control–disorganization theories. The routine activities approach stems from rational choice assumptions and emphasizes the circumstances under which crime is most likely.
