Morality prevents crime

A landmark study of criminal activity in teenagers indicates that some never see crime as a course of action while others are vulnerable to environmental inducements to crime. The study reveals factors that explains why some young people are 'crime-prone' and others 'crime-averse', and explains why crime hot spots occur. The idea that opportunity makes the thief - that young people will inevitably commit crime in certain environments - runs counter to our findings." - —Per-Olof H Wikström A unique study of teenagers and the community in Peterborough over ten years shows that most adolescent crime is not just youthful opportunism but the combined result of personal characteristics and environmental factors. The findings show that certain urban environments provide triggers for crime to which some teenagers are more vulnerable, while other teenagers remain highly resistant to the potential for crime - regardless of the circumstances. The groundbreaking Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study - or PADS+ - at Cambridge's Institute of Criminology, tracked in detail the criminal activities of around 700 young people and explored how these relate to both their personal characteristics and social environments - while most studies of crime and its causes only focus on one or the other. The findings from the first 5 years of the study from ages 12-16 are published this week in the book ' Breaking Rules ' (Oxford University Press). The young people self-reported about 16,000 crimes during the study period - dominant types being violence, vandalism and shoplifting.