ABSTRACT
This chapter distinguishes three components in a criminal event: the search, the precriminal situation, and the criminal tactics. The search occurs when the offender is looking for a suitable precriminal situation. The importance of the search is best exemplified in burglary. The concept of a precriminal situation is not new. It was used for years by continental criminologists like Kinberg. Offenders tend to repeat their successful moves and the successes of one offender tend to be repeated by others. This means that most criminal tactics are not unique: ways become customary and they crystallize into modes of procedure. A considerable number of criminal incidents as measured by victim’s surveys are only attempts to commit crime. This means that offenders constantly try things; they drop the ones that fail and repeat their successful moves.
