THE SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OF CRIME AND DEVIANCE

In the late 1940s Sutherland proposed that explanations of deviance an d crime are either situational or dispositional, and that of the two, situational explanations might be the more important. Nonetheless, wit h a few notable exceptions, for the next four decades sociologists foc used on dispositional theories to the near total exclusion of situatio nal variables. However, an increasing awareness of the theoretical lim itations of strategies based only on dispositions has begun to encoura ge researchers to reconsider situational explanations. Most of the res earch that explicitly examines situational dynamics in producing crime has originated in experimental psychology, symbolic interactionism, o r opportunity theories. Experimental research has helped to identify t he situational correlates of crime and deviance, but lacks a theoretic al framework for organizing its disparate empirical findings. Symbolic interaction research has emphasized the actor's role in defining and interpreting situations but thus far has not provided a theoretical li nk between motivation, opportunity, and crime. Opportunity theorists, especially those studying victimization, have made the most progress t oward developing a situational theory of crime, but their emphasis on the victim rather than the offender imposes serious theoretical and me thodological limitations.