Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rewriting the Script: Cross-Disciplinary Exploration and Conceptual Consolidation of the Procedural Analysis of Crime

  • Published:
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The use of Cornish’s crime-scripts approach in situational crime prevention grows apace. However, we believe the conceptual foundation of cognitive scripts imported from Abelson and colleagues was rather unclear and is too narrow to support current script research. We therefore review the notion of scripts to both promote clarity and better connect it to mainstream situational prevention and criminology more generally. We also seek to broaden the approach by exploring additional cross-disciplinary links. We believe all this will support the progressively more demanding uses to which the procedural analysis of crime may be put in research and practice and—more broadly—challenge how human behaviour in crime is analysed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abelson, R. (1981). Psychological status of the script concept. American Psychologist, 36, 715–729.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alrajeh, D., Kramer, J., van Lamsweerde, A., Russo, A., & Uchitel, S. (2012). Proceedings of 34th International Conference on Software Engineering. Zurich: ICSE. Generating obstacle conditions for requirements completeness.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aunger, R. (2000). Darwinizing Culture. The Status of Memetics as a Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banich, M. (2009). Executive function: The search for an integrated account. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 89–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Batschelet, A. (2002). Effects-based operations: A new operational model? USAWC strategy research project. Carlisle Barracks, PE: U.S. Army War College. www.iwar.org.uk/military/resources/effect-based-ops/ebo.pdf. Accessed 26 November 2014.

  • Beauregard, E., Proulx, J., Rossmo, K., Leclerc, B., & Allaire, J. (2007). Script analysis of the hunting process of serial sex offenders. Criminal Justice and Behaviour, 34, 1069–1084.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berkowitz, L. (1984). Some effects on thoughts on anti-social and prosocial influences of media effects. A cognitive-neoassociation analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 410–427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernasco, W. (2009). Foraging strategies of Homo criminalis: Lessons from behavioral ecology. Crime Patterns and Analysis, 2, 5–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bichler, G., Bush, S. & Malm, A. (2015). Regulatory foresight: Estimating policy effects on transnational illicit markets. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice.

  • Birks, D., Townsley, M., & Stewart, A. (2012). Generative explanations of crime: Using simulation to test criminological theory. Criminology, 50, 221–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borrion, H. (2013). Quality assurance in crime scripting. Crime Science, 2, 6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouhana, N. (2013). The reasoning criminal vs. Homer Simpson: Conceptual challenges for crime science. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 682.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brantingham, P., & Brantingham, P. (1984). Patterns in Crime. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brantingham, P., & Brantingham, P. (2008). Crime pattern theory. In R. Wortley & L. Mazerolle (Eds.), Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis. Willan: Cullompton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, R. (1999). Hot products: Understanding, anticipating and reducing demand for stolen goods (Police Research Series Paper 112). London: Home Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, R., & Eck, J. (2003). Become a Problem Solving Crime Analyst in 55 Small Steps. London: Jill Dando Institute, University College London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, R., & Newman, G. (2006). Outsmarting the Terrorists. London: Praeger Security International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, L., & Felson, M. (1979). Social change and crime rate changes: A routine activities approach. American Sociological Review, 44, 588–608.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cornish, D. (1994a). Crimes as scripts. In P. Cromwell & D. Zahm (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Seminar on Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis 1993. Coral Gables: University of Miami.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornish, D. (1994b). The procedural analysis of offending and its relevance for situational prevention. Crime Prevention Studies, 3, 151—96. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.

  • Cornish, D., & Clarke, R. (1986). The reasoning criminal: Rational choice perspectives on offending. New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, N., Krebs, J., & West, S. (2012). An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology (4th ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dennett, D. (1987). The Intentional Stance. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deslauriers-Varin, N., & Beauregard, E. (2010). Victims' routine activities and sex offenders' target selection scripts: A latent class analysis. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 22(3), 315–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duval, T., Silvia, P., & Lalwani, N. (2001). Self-Awareness & Causal Attribution: A Dual Systems Theory. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P. (1991). Talking to offenders: Practical lessons for local crime prevention. In O. Nel.lo, (Ed.), Urban Crime: Statistical Approaches and Analyses. Proceedings of international seminar, Barcelona 1990. Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Metropolitans de Barcelona.

  • Ekblom, P. (1997). Gearing up against crime: A dynamic framework to help designers keep up with the adaptive criminal in a changing world. International Journal of Risk Security and Crime Prevention, 2(4), 249–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P. (2003). Organised crime and the conjunction of criminal opportunity framework. In A. Edwards & P. Gill (Eds.), Transnational Organised Crime: Perspectives on Global Security (pp. 241–263). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P. (2005). How to police the future: scanning for scientific and technological innovations which generate potential threats and opportunities in crime, policing and crime reduction. In M. Smith & N. Tilley (Eds.), Crime Science: New Approaches to Preventing and Detecting Crime. Willan: Cullompton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P. (2007). Making offenders richer. In G. Farrell, K. Bowers, S. Johnson & M. Townsley, (Eds.), Imagination for Crime Prevention: Essays in Honour of Ken Pease. Crime Prevention Studies 21. Cullompton, UK: Willan.

  • Ekblom, P. (2010). The conjunction of criminal opportunity theory. Sage Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention, 1, 139–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P. (2011). Crime Prevention, Security and Community Safety Using the 5Is Framework. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P. (2012). Happy returns: Ideas brought back from situational crime prevention’s exploration of design against crime. In G. Farrell & N. Tilley (Eds.), The Reasoning Criminologist: Essays in Honour of Ronald V. Clarke (pp. 163–198). Cullompton: Willan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P. (2014). Design and security. In M. Gill (Ed.), The Handbook of Security (2nd ed., pp. 133–156). Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P. (2015). Terrorism – lessons from natural and human co-evolutionary arms races. In M. Taylor, J. Roach, & K. Pease (Eds.), Evolutionary Psychology and Terrorism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P. (in press). Evolutionary approaches to rational choice. In W. Bernasco, H. Elffers & J-L. Van Gelder, (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Offender Decision Making. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Ekblom, P., & Hirschfield, A. (2014). Developing an alternative formulation of situational crime prevention principles – the Ds (11 and counting). Crime Science, 3, 2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P., & Pease, K. (2014). Innovation and crime prevention. In G. Bruinsma & D. Weisburd (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom, P., & Tilley, N. (2000). Going equipped: Criminology, situational crime prevention and the resourceful offender’. British Journal of Criminology, 40, 376–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gamman, L., Thorpe, A., Malpass, M., & Liparova, E. (2012). Hey babe – take a walk on the wild side!: Why role-playing and visualization of user and abuser “scripts’ offer useful tools to effectively “think thief’ and build empathy to design against crime. Design and Culture, 4(2), 171–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gavin, H., & Hockey, D. (2010). Criminal careers and cognitive scripts: An investigation into criminal versatility. The Qualitative Report, 15(2), 389–410.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, M. (2005). Reducing the capacity to offend: Restricting resources for offending. In N. Tilley (Ed.), The Handbook of Crime Prevention and Community Safety. Cullompton: Willan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, P., Horgan, J., Hunter, S., & Cushenbery, L. (2013). Malevolent Creativity in Terrorist Organizations. Journal of Creative Behavior. doi:10.1002/jocb.28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1969). The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life. London: Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldman, A. (2012). Theory of mind. In I. Alvin, E. Margolis, R. Samuels, & S. Stich (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Cognitive Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottfredson, D., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A General Theory of Crime. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hakim, S., & Rengert, G. (1981). Crime Spillover. Beverly Hills: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilton, K., & Irons, A. (2006). A “criminal personas’ approach to countering criminal creativity. Crime Prevention and Community Safety, 8, 248–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • HSE. (1999). Reducing Error and Influencing Behaviour. London: Health and Safety Executive.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kordy, B., Piètre-Cambacédès, L. & Schweitzer, P. (2013). DAG-based attack and defense modeling: Don’t miss the forest for the attack trees. http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.7397 Accessed 26 November 2014.

  • Latour, B. (1992). Where are the missing masses? The sociology of a few mundane artifacts. In W. Bijker & J. Law (Eds.), Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change (pp. 225–258). Boston: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leclerc, B. (2013a). Script analysis for crime controllers: Extending the reach of SCP. In S. Caneppele & F. Calderoni, (Eds.), Organized Crime, Corruption, and Crime Prevention – Essays in Honour of Ernesto U. Savona. New York: Springer.

  • Leclerc, B. (2013b). New developments in script analysis for situational crime prevention: Moving beyond offender scripts. In B. Leclerc & R. Wortley (Eds.), Cognition and Crime: Offender Decision-Making and Script Analysis. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leclerc, B., & Wortley, R. (2013). Cognition and crime: Offender decision making and script analysis. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leclerc, B., Wortley, R., & Smallbone, S. (2011). Getting into the script of adult child sex offenders and mapping out SCP measures. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 48, 209–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leclerc, B. Smallbone, S. & Wortley, R. (2013). Interpersonal scripts and victim reaction in child sexual abuse: A quantitative analysis of the offender-victim interchange. In B. Leclerc & R. Wortley. (Eds.), Cognition and Crime: Offender Decision-Making and Script Analysis. London: Routledge.

  • Leclerc, B., & Reynald, D. (2015). When scripts and guardianship unite: A script model to facilitate intervention of capable guardians. Security Journal. doi:10.1057/sj.2015.8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lockton, D., Harrison, D., & Stanton, N. (2008). “Design with intent: Persuasive technology in a wider context. In H. Oinas-Kukkonen, P. Hasle, M. Harjumaa, K. Segerståhl, & P. Øhrstrøm (Eds.), Persuasive Technology: Third International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2008, Oulu, Finland, Proceedings. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Markman, K., Klein, W., & Suhr, J. (2009). Handbook of Imagination and Mental Simulation. New York: Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marrow, A. (1969). The Practical Theorist: The Life and Work of Kurt Lewin. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merton, R. (1968). Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. (1959). On intellectual craftsmanship. In C. Mills (Ed.), The Sociological Imagination. Penguin: Harmondsworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morselli, C., & Roy, J. (2008). Brokerage qualifications in ringing operations. Criminology, 46(1), 71–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pawson, R., & Tilley, N. (1997). Realistic Evaluation. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powers, W. (2009). Living Control Systems: The Fact of Control: 3. Montclair, NJ: Benchmark. See also www.pctweb.org. Accessed 24 November 2014.

  • Sasse, M. A., Ashenden, D., Lawrence, D., Coles-Kemp, L., Fléchais, I., & Kearney, P. (2007). Human Vulnerabilities in Security Systems. Human Factors Working Group White Paper. London: UCL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savona, E. U. (2010). Infiltration by Italian organized crime (Mafia, N’drangheta and Camorra) of the public construction industry. In K. Bullock, R. V. Clarke, & N. Tilley (Eds.), Situational Prevention of Organized Crimes. Devon: Willan Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schank, R., & Abelson, R. (1977). Scripts, Plans. Goals and Understanding: An Inquiry into Human Knowledge. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schön, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schutz, A. (1967). The Phenomenology of the Social World. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sennett, R. (2007). The Craftsman. New Haven: Yale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soudijn, M., & Zegers, B. (2012). Cybercrime and virtual offender convergence settings. Trends in Organized Crime, 15, 11–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny, K. (2012). Language, gesture, skill: The coevolutionary foundations of language. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 367, 2141–2151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, M., & Currie, M. (2012). Terrorism and Affordance. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tedeschi, J., & Felson, R. (1994). Violence, aggression, and coercive actions. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tinbergen, N. (1963). On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 20, 410–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tompson, L., & Chainey, S. (2011). Profiling illegal waste activity: Using crime scripts as a data collection and analytical strategy. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 17(3), 179–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Army, U. K. (2011). Operations. Swindon: Army Doctrine Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • US Army (1992). Field Manual No 7–8. Washington, DC: US Department of the Army. www.shu.edu/offices/rotc/upload/FM-7-8.pdf. Accessed 1 December 2014.

  • Van Gelder, J.-L., Elffers, H., Reynald, D., & Nagin, D. (2013). Affect and Cognition in Criminal Decision Making: Between Rational Choices and Lapses of Self-Control. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, H. (1983). Alfred Schutz: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wikström, P.-O. (2014). Situational action theory. In G. Bruinsma & D. Weisburd (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice (pp. 4845–4852). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wortley, R. (2008). Situational precipitators of crime. In R. Wortley & L. Mazerolle (Eds.), Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis. Cullompton: Willan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zanella, M. (2013). Script analysis of corruption in public procurement. In B. Leclerc & R. Wortley (Eds.), Cognition and Crime: Offender Decision Making and Script Analyses. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to our reviewers and to Benoit Leclerc (Griffith University), Nigel Fielding (Surrey University) and Richard Wortley (UCL) for helpful comments.

Funding

This work is partly based on research funded by the UK Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Project TP/400206) to MG

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Design Against Crime Research Centre, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, Granary Building, 1 Granary Square, London, N1C 4AA, UK

    Paul Ekblom

  2. University College London (UCL), London, UK

    Paul Ekblom & Martin Gill

  3. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Paul Ekblom

  4. University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Martin Gill

  5. Perpetuity Research, 11a High Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN1 1UL, UK

    Martin Gill

Authors
  1. Paul Ekblom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Martin Gill
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul Ekblom.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ekblom, P., Gill, M. Rewriting the Script: Cross-Disciplinary Exploration and Conceptual Consolidation of the Procedural Analysis of Crime. Eur J Crim Policy Res 22, 319–339 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-015-9291-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-015-9291-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation