Why do crowded streets sometimes deter crime and sometimes attract it? Pedestrian volume can reduce crime through informal surveillance (“eyes on the street”) or raise it by expanding anonymity and…

An issue that thoughtfully re-engages with an important or landmark book, thinker or theory – or, an overlooked, forgotten or sorely underused book, thinker or theory – is the kind of critical and reinvigorating dialogue with the literature we would be keen to see in the journal.

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Purpose This paper introduces a novel framework for analyzing online offender mobility. Methods Drawing on multidisciplinary insights, we extend two established criminological models for studying offl...

How does violent crime in London compare to other global cities?

This document describes the terms of reference of the Open Criminology Awards of the European Network for Open Criminology (ENOC)

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Seasonal regularities are a fundamental feature of human behavior, yet climate change may disrupt the environmental rhythms that structure them. While prior research has examined how short-term weather fluctuations affect violence, little is known about whether long-run...

This study investigates whether unstructured spare time is a significant correlate of self-reported offending among adolescents in multiple countries. Drawing on survey data from 58,425 13-to-17-year-...

This study examines repeat victimization (RV) and multiple victimization (MV) in business cybercrime using data from the 2024 UK Cyber Security Breaches Survey ...

Criminological theorizing over the past half century has shown little convergence or integration. Three strands of criminological theory can be identified: dispositional approaches (emphasizing self-control, social learning, biological, and morality theories), ecological theories (emphasizing the crime consequences of dysfunctional communities), and opportunity theories (focusing primarily on places and artifacts that enable or facilitate crime). The discipline’s progress has not resulted in a convergence of theoretical propositions. This article offers a potential route toward reconciling these approaches, provisionally termed the Unstructured Spare Time model of crime. It begins with an overview of relevant criminological theories and highlights enduring tensions between individual- and opportunity-based approaches. It then reviews previous integrative efforts, noting their contributions and limitations. The Unstructured Spare Time model is introduced as a conceptual bridge among these traditions. The model posits that unstructured spare time, at the level of individuals, geographic areas, and time periods, is shaped by personal factors, broader social changes, and the spatial organization of cities and towns. This unstructured time, in turn, influences both individual readiness for crime and the availability of crime opportunities. The model advances a dynamic view of how time-use patterns mediate the relationship between personal traits, community conditions, structural factors, and exposure to and engagement in crime. Its central contribution lies in focusing explanation and, by extension, prevention and intervention strategies on a single, observable factor: unstructured spare time. The article summarizes empirical support from recent studies and concludes by outlining directions for future research and refinement of the model.

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When does a theory genuinely explain how a social phenomenon has come about? Much sociological theory invokes general causal categories – norms, institutions, ...

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The problem of urban crime in most developing regions has increased, and spatial configurations tend to be consistent with social and environmental dy…