Page 12 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 5: Situational Action Theory

An End Has A Start…

Although Situational Action Theory As luck would have it, Wikstrom’s
asks important questions about ground-breaking longitudinal study
crime and causality and has a of youth crime, the Peterborough
certain plausibility (or face validity) Adolescent and Young Adult
in relation to the answers it Development Study (PADS+)
proposes about the relationship goes some way to providing such
between social disadvantage and evidence.
crime it would be useful to look at
empirical examples of research
carried-out in this area. EVIDENCE

The Evidence…

One of the more-interesting things As Wikstrom and Trieber (2016)
about the use of Situational Action argue, the objective here is “to
Theory (SAT) to explore the advance knowledge about the
relationship between crime and relationship between social
social disadvantage is that it disadvantage and crime
developed alongside Wikstrom’s involvement through the
Peterborough Adolescent and application of situational action
Young Adult Development Study theory (SAT) and the analysis of
(PADS+). data from a random sample of
U.K. adolescents from the
This longitudinal study of young
people’s behaviour in the early longitudinal Peterborough
st
part of the 21 century has proven Adolescent and Young Adult
to be both a valuable resource in Development Study (PADS+).”.
its own right and, more- To this end we can have a look at
importantly perhaps, a rich source a broad overview of what,
of empirical evidence with which according to Wikstrom, PADS+
to test many of the hypotheses data tells us about both criminal
Wikstrom developed out of his involvement and its relationship to
application of SAT to an social disadvantage.
understanding of how and why
youth crime occurs.

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