Jean-Louis van Gelder

Beyond Rational Choice: the Hot/Cool Perspective of Criminal Decision Making

This paper proposes a general framework of criminal decision making that assumes both ‘cool’ cognition and ‘hot’ affect, i.e. feelings, to influence criminal choice. Drawing from judgment and decision making research and social psychology, the hot/cool perspective extends rational choice and deterrence theories by explaining how affect is likely to influence criminal decisions alongside cognitive considerations, such as the perceived costs and benefits of crime. It is shown how the hot/cool perspective offers a more realistic account of criminal decision making processes than existing decision models and approaches and also allows for the explanation of criminal behaviors that are difficult to explain in terms of rational choice.This paper proposes a general framework of criminal decision making that assumes both ‘cool’ cognition and ‘hot’ affect, i.e. feelings, to influence criminal choice. Drawing from judgment and decision making research and social psychology, the hot/cool perspective extends rational choice and deterrence theories by explaining how affect is likely to influence criminal decisions alongside cognitive considerations, such as the perceived costs and benefits of crime. It is shown how the hot/cool perspective offers a more realistic account of criminal decision making processes than existing decision models and approaches and also allows for the explanation of criminal behaviors that are difficult to explain in terms of rational choice.

Vividness of the Future Self Predicts Delinquency

The tendency to live in the here and now, and the failure to think through the delayed consequences of behavior, is one of the strongest individual-level correlates of delinquency. We tested the hypothesis that this correlation results from a limited ability to imagine one’s self in the future, which leads to opting for immediate gratification. Strengthening the vividness of the future self should therefore reduce involvement in delinquency. We tested and found support for this hypothesis in two studies. In Study 1, compared with participants in a control condition, those who wrote a letter to their future self were less inclined to make delinquent choices. In Study 2, participants who interacted with a realistic digital version of their future, age-progressed self in a virtual environment were less likely than control participants to cheat on a subsequent task.

Differences in Psychological Strategies of Failed and Operational Business Owners in the Fiji Islands

This study investigates the differences between failed and operational businesses from a psychological perspective. The sample included 71 operational and 20 failed business owners from Suva, the capital of Fiji. It was hypothesized that operational business owners more often employ a detailed and long‐term planning strategy, whereas failed business owners more often pursue a reactive strategy, that operational business owners set more specific and more difficult goals, and that they have a higher degree of human capital than failed entrepreneurs. The data were analyzed using discriminant analysis. Results confirmed the hypotheses regarding planning and goal specificity.

VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE … BUT HOW? A DECISION-MAKING PERSPECTIVE ON THE VICTIM–OFFENDER OVERLAP*

This study applied a decision-making perspective to examine the causal mechanisms underlying the relation between violent victimization and offending. We theorized that having been victimized affects an individuals appraisal of subsequent potentially conflictive situations in such a way that victims become more attuned toward the benefits of violence perpetration than toward its costs. Furthermore, we argued that this altered appraisal mediates the relation between violent victimization and violent offending. We tested these hypotheses by using data from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths, a longitudinal study of Swiss youth (N = 1,013; 11–15 years of age). In line with expectations, path analysis results showed that prior victimization influenced the appraisal of decision-making situations that, in turn, predicted subsequent self-reported violent offending. Importantly, these mediation effects held when controlling for a variety of time-stable factors, such as self-control and risky activities, as well as prior victimization and delinquency. Implications for research and theorizing on the victim–offender overlap are elaborated in the discussion.

FRIENDS WITH MY FUTURE SELF: LONGITUDINAL VIVIDNESS INTERVENTION REDUCES DELINQUENCY

In a field experiment, we use a novel method to test whether instilling a greater sense of vividness of the future self motivates people to act in a more future-oriented way and reduces their delinquent involvement. We manipulate vividness of the future self by having participants, a sample of high-school youth (N = 133), “befriend” an avatar representing their future self on a social network website. For 7 days, they reply to short messages from their future self designed to trigger thinking about that distant self. Using repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), we find that participants who had been linked to their future self report less delinquent involvement, whereas controls did not. Furthermore, the results of a nonparametric bootstrapping procedure show that this effect is mediated by changes in vividness of the future self, such that increases in vividness lead to lower self-reported delinquency. We conclude that vividness of the future self holds promise not only as a cognitive explanation for the failure to make informed cost–benefit trade-offs but also for interventions aiming to reduce delinquency.

Personality and Opportunity An Integrated Approach to Offending and Victimization

This study examines the alternative ways that key personality traits—Agreeableness and Conscientiousness—work in conjunction with measures of situational opportunity in affecting offending and victimization simultaneously. More specifically, we explore (a) the extent to which the effects of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness on offending and victimization are mediated by opportunity, and (b) the extent to which the effects of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness on offending and victimization are moderated by opportunity. These interrelationships are estimated using path modeling of two waves of survey data from a 4-year panel study of 2,220 adolescents. Results suggest that the effects of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness on offending and/or victimization are partially mediated by situational opportunity. Regarding interaction effects, results show that the effects of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness are also moderated by measures of situational opportunity. These traits appear to protect against offending most notably at the highest levels of opportunity.

Virtual Burglary Exploring the Potential of Virtual Reality to Study Burglary in Action

Objectives: This article explores the potential of virtual reality (VR) to study burglary by measuring user responses on the subjective, physiological, and behavioral levels. Furthermore, it examines the influence of individual dispositions, such as sensation seeking and self-control, on behavior during a virtual burglary event. Methods: Participants, male university undergraduates (N = 77), could freely move around a virtual neighborhood wearing a VR headset and using a game controller and were instructed to burgle one of the houses in the neighborhood. Participant movement, items stolen from the house, and heart rate (HR) were recorded throughout the burglary event. Individual dispositions were measured before, and subjective user responses were measured after, the event. Additionally, we experimentally varied whether there was an alarm sounding and participants’ beliefs about the chance of getting caught (deterrence). Results: Participants reacted subjectively to the burglary event by reporting high levels of presence in the virtual environment (VE) and physiologically by showing increased HRs. In terms of behavior, high deterrence resulted in fewer items being stolen and a shorter burglary. Furthermore, sensation seekers stole more valuable items, while participants high in conscientiousness stole fewer items. Conclusions: The results suggest that VEs have substantial potential for studying criminal behavior.

Innovative data collection methods in criminological research: editorial introduction

Novel technologies, such as GPS, the Internet and virtual environments are not only rapidly becoming an increasingly influential part of our daily lives, they also have tremendous potential for improving our understanding of where, when and why crime occurs. In addition to these technologies, several innovative research methods, such as neuropsychological measurements and time-space budgets, have emerged in recent years. While often highly accessible and relevant for crime research, these technologies and methods are currently underutilized by criminologists who still tend to rely on traditional data-collection methods, such as systematic observation and surveys.The contributions in this special issue of Crime Science explore the potential of several innovative research methods and novel technologies for crime research to acquaint criminologists with these methods so that they can apply them in their own research. Each contribution deals with a specific technology or method, gives an overview and reviews the relevant literature. In addition, each article provides useful suggestions about new ways in which the technology or method can be applied in future research. The technologies describe software and hardware that is widely available to the consumer (e.g. GPS technology) and that sometimes can even be used free of charge (e.g., Google Street View). We hope this special issue, which has its origins in a recent initiative of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) called CRIME Lab, and a collaborative workshop together with the Research consortium Crime, Criminology and Criminal Policy of Ghent University, will inspire researchers to start using innovative methods and novel technologies in their own research.

Housing informality in Buenos Aires: Past, present and future?

As in most other Latin American cities, a principal way of accessing housing for the urban poor in Buenos Aires has been through the illegal occupation of land. Over a period of roughly eight decades, this has led to the formation of hundreds of informal settlements in the city. This article traces the historical development of informality in Argentina’s capital. It shows that different phases in this development, each with particular characteristics, can be discerned. Currently, the contours of a new phase, different from all previous ones, are taking shape. It will be argued that without an adequate understanding of the different conditioning factors of this new phase and an integrated approach to address them, informality in the city is bound to persist and even to increase in size, in spite of the country’s impressive recent economic growth and high government expenditure on social housing.

CLASH's life history foundations

We recommend extending CLASH by incorporating two evolutionary accounts of the shift toward fast life histories under harsh, unpredictable conditions. These accounts, if integrated with CLASH, make different predictions about the distributions of aggression and violence within and between societies. We discuss these predictions and propose ways of testing them.