Stick‐up, Street Culture, and Offender Motivation*

Abstract

Motivation is the central, yet arguably the most assumed, causal variable in the etiology of criminal behavior. Criminology's incomplete and imprecise understanding of this construct can be traced to the discipline's strong emphasis on background risk factors, open to the exclusion of subjective foreground conditions. In this article, we attempt to remedy this by exploring the decision‐making processes of active armed robbers in real‐life settings and circumstances. Our aim is to understand how and why these offenders move from an unmotivated state to one in which they are determined to commit robbery. Drawing from semistructured interviews with 86 active armed robbers, we argue that while the decision to commit robbery stems most directly from a perceived need for fast cash, this decision is activated, mediated, and shaped by participation in street culture. Street culture, and its constituent conduct norms, represents an essential intervening variable linking criminal motivation to background risk factors and subjective foreground conditions.

"Might Not Be a Tomorrow": A Multi-Methods Approach to Anticipated Early Death and Youth Crime

“…Beyond that, the internal validity of these kinds of data and procedures has been exhaustively addressed in previous research and need not be fully restated here (see, for example, Jacobs et al 2000Jacobs et al , 2003Jacobs and Wright, 1999;Maher, 1997;Topalli et al, 2002;Topalli and Wright, 2004;Wright and Decker, 1997).…”

“…This approach allowed participants to respond freely and to introduce their own concepts and categories, providing us with a more comprehensive and rich set of data to explore. This approach has been used successfully in many previous ethnographic studies of active offenders (e.g., Jacobs et al, 2000;Jacobs and Wright, 1999;Topalli, 2005a; Topalli and 22 Wright, 2004; Decker, 1994, 1997). Interviews focused on the participants' perceptions of risk-with particular emphasis on the risk of future injury or early death-and the extent to which these perceptions influenced their attitudes and behaviors related to offending.…”

An empirical test of social information processing theory and emotions in violent situations

“…Без учета этого опыта сложно объяснить мотивы и мыслительные процес-сы правонарушителя. Теория рационального выбора признает наличие мотивации, но не объясняет ее [9].…”

“…Объективная оценка ситуации затруднена в тех случаях, когда рациональное мышление ограничен-но [10], когда вообще отсутствует [9] или отягощено эмоциями. Разнообразие и объективность реакций могут быть недостижимы в случае ограниченных воз-можностей отдельной личности [11].…”

The Role of Violence in Street Crime

“…One hallmark of street culture is the pursuit of pleasure and status through conspicuous consumption and living a lifestyle characterised as "life as a party" (Shover & Honaker, 1992, p. 283). According to Jacobs and Wright (1999), the lifestyle of street offenders typically involves pleasure pursuits such as drinking, drug use, gambling, sexual conquest, and fighting, assaults, and other forms of expressive violence. The overall ethos of street culture is summarised by the authors in the following quotation:…”