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15 Eur. J. Criminology 3 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/eujcrim15 and id is 1 raw text is: 


                                                                        European

Introduction                                                            Criminology

                                                            European journal of Criminology
                                                                    2018, Vol. 15(1) 3-9
Introduction           to   the    Special                          TeAto~)21
                                                                   @ The Author(s) 2017
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Issue     with    somri   e  reflections                sagepub.co.ul/journalsPermissions.nav
                                                           DOI: 10.1177/1477370817732182
on    the   role    of   self-control in                     journals.sagepub.com/home/euc
Situational Action Theory                                                OSAGE




Helmut Hirtenlehner
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria


jost  Reinecke
University of Bielefeld, Germany




In recent years, Per-Olof Wikstrom's Situational Action Theory (SAT) (for example,
Wikstrom,  2010; Wikstrom  et al., 2012) has become one of the most-examined crime
theories among   European  criminologists interested in crime causation. Although
devised as a tool to explain rule-breaking behaviour in general, most contemporary
applications deal with its potential to account for the formation of criminal or delin-
quent conduct. The theory's key argument is that the interaction between an individual
with a certain crime propensity and a setting with a certain criminogeneity triggers a
perception-choice process that immediately governs action. Therewith SAT represents
both a broad and a deep theory.' It is broad in the sense that it successfully integrates
person-oriented and environment-oriented explanations of criminal conduct. It is deep
in the sense that it illuminates the mechanism that brings about criminal behaviour. A
distinct feature is the theory's focus on the interactive interplay of the various factors
and processes involved in crime causation. 'It's all about interactions' (Wikstrom et al.,
2012)  excellently describes the theory's central credo. This implies a shift from the
study of the unconditional effects of various influencing entities to their conditional
effects, which runs through all articles included in this Special Issue of the European
Journal of Criminology.
   In the first contribution to this issue, Wikstrom and colleagues provide a thorough
introduction to SAT and preferred ways of testing it. Then they employ neural network


Corresponding author:
Helmut Hirtenlehner, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Centre for Criminology, Altenbergerstrasse 69,
4040 Linz, Austria.
Email: helmut.hirtenlehner@jku.at

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