Explaining Within and Between Gender Differences in Crime Involvement. A Question of Morality and Life-Styles?

Situational Action Theory (SAT) explains people’s acts of crime as an outcome of the interaction between their crime propensity (dependent on their personal morals and ability to exercise self-control) and their criminogenic exposure (dependent on the criminogenic circumstances of the settings in which they take part). In this paper, utilising UK (PADS+) and Swedish (MINDS) data for the ages 15-16, we will explore cross-nationally to what extent the SAT framework can help explain within and between gender differences in young people’s crime involvement