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Environmental and Ecological Theories

Cover, Theories of Crime Causation

Environmental Theories

Environmental Criminology suggests that crime is the impact of an individual's environmental condition based on the availability of different influential factors.

Griffith Criminology Institute | Introduction to CGI Theme: Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis

There are three assumptions in the environmental perspective:

  1. The interaction between the offender and its environment best explains criminality.
  2. Crime is traced according to its immediate location.
  3. In the prevention and control of crime, facts on offending patterns are essential.

Ecological Theories

Ecology is a science that studies the relationships between plants and animals and the focus is on their process of interaction.

It conducts queries on the social, ecological, and environmental influences on human development and actions based on the degree of exposure to different factors. From the crime perspective, the social ecology of crime is the study of one particular behavioral outcome of these processes: the violation of rules of conduct defined in law.

The positivist school of thought rejects free will and believes that every individual is born differently and becomes a product of their environment. It depends on science in the determination of crime causes.


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Developmental Perspective →