ABSTRACT
The “crime event” perspective assumes that criminal acts, as well as their precursors and aftermath, derive from an interplay of offender, victim, and situational factors that converge in time and space (Sacco and Kennedy, 1994). In contrast to traditional theories of criminality or victimization that place causal significance on a largely static set of attributes, the event approach provides a dynamic, holistic representa tion of the criminal act. From this perspective, criminal acts are thought to be more or less likely, depending upon the presence or absence of particular offender, victim, and situational elements that facilitate or impede their completion.
