The Ideological and Theoretical Positionality of Situational Crime Prevention in Criminology

Situational crime prevention (SCP) is one of criminology’s more misunderstood theoretical perspectives, despite it being widely implemented in the practice of criminal justice. Since its introduction some critics have alleged that SCP is theoretically weak, oppositional to traditional criminology (TC), ideologically conservative and a tool of the powerful. The repercussions of these beliefs can be seen across different dimensions of academia, from basic criminological pedagogy to theory critique and development. We argue that these allegations are misperceptions stemming from core misunderstandings of SCP, and the related rational choice perspective (RCP). Rather than being fundamentally different from TC, SCP, and the RCP are well-positioned for rich theoretical integration with an array of traditional theories, including learning, control, strain, and other theories.