The Theory of Environmental Criminology

The criminology of place, also called environmental criminology, is an emerging perspective within the contemporary body of criminological theory that builds upon the contributions of routine activities theory and situational crime prevention (both of which were discussed in Chapter 4), as well as ecological approaches emphasizes the importance of geographic location and architectural features as they are associated with the prevalence of victimization. Such “hot spots” of crime, including neighborhoods, specific streets, and even individual houses and businesses, have been identified by recent writers” (Schmalleger).

Examples of environmental crime theory are teenagers who grow up in poverty stricken areas and maintain the environments influence thus following a criminal line of behavior in order to mesh their peers. Criminal behavior is learned and thus maintained in an environment which encourages it. An environment filled with guns, drugs, prostitution and gambling. How can a teenager survive all of this? Another example of how the environment affects young children is the valence in the neighborhood or within the household. Violence brings scripts that are learned in early childhood and scripts promote violent bachelor. People continue to react even if they are not in the same environment anymore. Thus they have learned to survive life itself. I believe this theory has merit.

“Social structure theorists view members of socially and economically disadvantaged groups as being more likely to commit crime, and they see economic and social disenfranchisement as fundamental causes of crime. Poverty, lack of education, an absence of salable skills, and subcultural values conducive to crime are all thought to be predicated on the social conditions surrounding early life experiences, and they provide the causal underpinnings of social structure theories”(.I feel that the strain theory sheds light on the environmental crime theory with the finger pointing to lack of opportunity for the poor and indigent. The strain theory pertains “to a lack of fit between socially approved success goals and the availability of socially approved means to achieve those goals” (Schmalleger).