Situational Causes of Offending: A Fixed‐effects Analysis of Space–time Budget Data

Abstract

Situational theories of crime assert that the situations that people participate in contain the proximal causes of crime. Prior research has not tested situational hypotheses rigorously, either for lack of detailed situational data or for lack of analytical rigor. The present research combines detailed situational data with analytical methods that eliminate all stable between‐individual factors as potential confounds. We test seven potential situational causes: 1) presence of peers, 2) absence of adult handlers, 3) public space, 4) unstructured activities, 5) use of alcohol, 6) use of cannabis, and 7) carrying weapons. In a two‐wave panel study, a general sample of adolescents completed a space–time budget interview that recorded, hour by hour over the course of 4 complete days, the activities and whereabouts of the subjects, including any self‐reported offenses. In total, 76 individuals reported having committed 104 offenses during the 4 days covered in the space–time budget interview. Using data on the 4,949 hours that these 76 offenders spent awake during these 4 days, within‐individual, fixed‐effects multivariate logit analyses were used to establish situational causes of offending. The findings demonstrate that offending is strongly and positively related to all hypothesized situational causes except using cannabis and carrying weapons.

Offending and Victimization in the Digital Age: Comparing Correlates of Cybercrime and Traditional Offending-Only, Victimization-Only and the Victimization-Offending Overlap

“…'going out (e.g., pub, club, restaurant, movies, etc.)'. In addition we asked respondents about their substance abuse, using items from Bernasco et al (2013). We asked them to indicate: 1.…”

Sex differences in longitudinal pathways from parenting to delinquency

“…The instrument was originally developed by Wikström and Butterworth (2006) in the Peterborough Youth Study and refined in its successor, the Peterborough Adolescent Delinquency Study (PADS+). During the interview, the activities of the adolescent during each hour of four recent days were recorded (always including the previous Friday and Saturday), including the nature of the main activity (e.g., sports, learning), the function of the place (e.g., soccer field, school), persons present in the setting (e.g., teacher, parents), and the geographical location (see also Bernasco et al 2013). …”

Measuring short and rare activities – Time diaries in criminology

“…For more detailed overviews of studies conducted with the PADS+ STB data, see Wikström et al, (2010;2012a) In collaboration with the PADS+ staff, the Space-Time Budget method was translated and adjusted to the Dutch situation in the Study of Peers, Activities and Neighborhoods (SPAN). Data from the SPAN project have been used to examine, for example, situational causes of crime (Bernasco et al, 2013) and victimization (Averdijk and Bernasco, 2014), conditions under which 'time spent with peers' is related to adolescent offending (Weerman, Bernasco, Bruinsma and Pauwels, 2015a), whether the locations where adolescents 'hang out' are associated with offending , and to investigate the extent to which parenting is related to time spent 'hanging out' with friends (Janssen, Deković, and Bruinsma, 2014).…”

“…In the second wave, 615 of the 843 adolescents participated again (73 percent). The main reasons for attrition were that adolescents simply refused participation, that they could not be contacted, that their parents refused to give permission, or that the adolescents repeatedly did not show up at ap-pointments (Bernasco et al, 2013;Weerman et al, 2015a). Two adolescents in the second wave completed the time diaries, but were ill during the entire reference period (four days).…”