ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the fundamentals for a cross-level Situational Action Theory of crime causation. It discusses how individual and proximate environmental factors can be integrated to explain what moves people to commit acts of crime. The chapter argues that integration of proximate levels of explanation is basically about studying how the interaction between individual characteristics and settings, influence individuals’ perceptions of alternatives and choices, which in turn, determine their course of action. Action, the expression of agency, may be defined as behavior performed under the person’s guidance. A theory of action specifies what moves people to act. Hence, a theory of action specifically dealing with crime should specify what moves people to break the rules of law. The main argument here is that a person’s morals have an impact on his or her course of action primarily through influencing what alternatives for action a person is likely to see and consider in a particular setting.
