Crime Involvement in Adolescence : Criminogenic Exposure Interacting with Crime Propensity

Guided by Situational Action Theory the aim was to explore the role of the social environment and its interaction with personal characteristics and experiences in crime causation among young people in a Swedish city. The interaction between young people’s crime propensity and exposure to criminogenic settings on crime involvement was tested. Futhermore ,the possibility of gender-specific criminogenic settings was explored. Data from The Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Development study (MINDS) were analysed for the adolescent period. MINDS was modelled after the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+) and consists of 560 randomly selected children born in 1995, living in the city of Malmö, Sweden. The data concern in-depth data detailing self-control through executive functions and risk-taking, morality, deterrence sensitivity and decision-making. Individuals’ exposure to different environments was collected using a Space-Time Budget. Characteristics of settings were measured through a separate community survey. The results showed that exposure to criminogenic settings was associated with crime involvement for boys and girls respectively. However, the impact of exposure to criminogenic settings differed between the sexes. The findings will be discussed in relation to policy implications and further research