Situational Action Theory: A General, Dynamic and Mechanism-Based Theory of Crime and Its Causes

The core argument of Situational Action Theory (SAT) is that people ultimately commit acts of crime because they find them viable and acceptable in the circumstance (and there is no relevant and strong enough deterrent) or because they fail to act in accordance with their own personal morals (i.e., fail to exercise self-control) in circumstances when externally pressurised to act otherwise. Situational Action Theory is a general, dynamic and mechanism-based theory of crime and its causes that analyzes crime as moral actions. It proposes to explain all kinds of crime and rule-breaking more broadly (hence general), stresses the importance of the person-environment interaction and its changes (hence dynamic), and focuses on identifying key basic explanatory processes involved in crime causation (hence mechanistic). This chapter gives an overview of the basic assumptions, central concepts and key explanatory propositions of Situational Action Theory.