ABSTRACT
The term ‘opportunity reduction’ is commonly used to describe succinctly situational crime prevention and to differentiate clearly situational tech niques from other crime prevention approaches which aim to improve social institutions or alter criminal dispositions (Clarke, 1992; 1995). The rational choice perspective on crime, upon which the situational prevention model is based, portrays offenders as active decision makers who undertake costbenefit analyses of presenting crime opportunities. Opportunities may be created by the offender, may be sought out or may simply be taken as they fortuitously occur. Whichever is the case, situational prevention involves increasing the risks, increasing the effort or reducing the rewards associated with the crime opportunity so that the perceived costs of offending are judged to outweigh the perceived gains. The prominence given to the role of opportunity in rational choice and
situational prevention is justified by a broader theoretical perspective on behaviour which emphasizes the crucial role of the person-situation interac tion (Mischel, 1968). Rational choice theorists have drawn upon the exten sive psychological literature which challenges the traditional view of personality as a cross-situationally and longitudinally enduring predisposi tion (Clarke, 1992; Cornish and Clarke, 1986). Most modem psychological theories now acknowledge to a greater or lesser extent that behaviour is relatively variable and shaped by the context in which it occurs. A person who may be described as aggressive, for example, does not behave
uniformly in an aggressive manner. Rather, aggression is displayed occasion ally and only when certain favourable conditions are met. The argument of this chapter is that the concept of opportunity when
applied to situational prevention is restrictive and does not capture fully the complexity of the person-situation interaction as it is understood in psy chology and as it is acknowledged in a more complete reading of the rational choice perspective. ‘Opportunity’ implies only that certain situational factors make it easy for the individual to follow a course of action that will deliver benefits. This chapter reviews the ways situational influences on behaviour have been conceptualized in psychology. This examination sug gests that, in many cases, situations are important not because they provide information about the likely outcome of a behaviour (which is the basis of opportunity reduction), but because they psychologically ‘ready’ the indi vidual to respond in a certain way. That is, whereas the term ‘opportunity reduction’ assumes the existence of a motivated offender who, at the very least, is ready to give in to criminal temptations, a number of psychological theories emphasize the role of situations in promoting the inclination to commit crime. Situations, then, are broader than opportunities in the usual use of that word. The term ‘opportunity reduction’, it is argued, has encour aged an undue focus on target-hardening techniques by both practitioners and critics, and has contributed to the restricted appeal of the situational approach. Four ways that situations might actively encourage criminal responses are
suggested: situations can present cues which prompt the individual to per form criminal behaviour, they can exert social pressure on an individual to offend, they can induce disinhibition and permit potential offenders to com mit illegal acts which they would otherwise not perform, and they can produce emotional arousal and provoke a criminal response.
