Overview
Lifestyle theory holds that crime is a developmental process guided by an ongoing interaction between three variables (incentive, opportunity, and choice). During each phase of the criminal lifestyle (initiation, transition, maintenance, burnout/maturity), incentive, opportunity, and choice take on different values and meanings. Existential fear serves as the incentive for the initiation phase of a criminal lifestyle. Once initiated, the incentive for continued lifestyle involvement becomes a fear of losing out on the benefits of crime. By the time the individual enters the third (maintenance) phase of a criminal lifestyle, incentive has changed once again, this time to a fear of change. With the advent of the burnout/maturity phase of the criminal lifestyle, incentive has changed yet again, this time to a fear of death, disability, or incarceration. Comparable transformations take place in opportunity and choice....
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Walters, G.D. (2014). Lifestyle Theory. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_509
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