Denna studie syftar till att undersöka sambandet mellan kriminalitet, viktimisering och exponering för kriminogena situationer. Självrapporterad data samlades in vid tre tillfällen från 525 Malmöungdomar, varav 320 uppfyllde studiens inkluderingskriterier. Resultaten visar att mycket tid spenderad oövervakad, mycket tid ägnad åt ostrukturerade aktiviteter, mycket tid i sällskap med vänner samt alkoholkonsumtion samvarierar med brottslighet och viktimisering i varierande utsträckning. Sambanden varierar dock i förhållande till de båda utfallsvariablerna och deltagarnas ålder. Livsstils-rutinaktivitetsteorin kan förklara resultaten men behöver i framtiden ta större hänsyn till ålder. Studiens två slutsatser är att (1) brottslighet och viktimisering bör betraktas som två olika men klart relaterade företeelser i förhållande till exponering för kriminogena situationer och att (2) ålder måste tas i beaktande i forskning om exponering för kriminogena situationer eftersom sambanden mellan exponering och de båda utfallsvariablerna varierar från tidiga till sena tonår. / This study aims to examine offending and victimization in relation to situational criminogenic exposure. Self-reported data was collected at three occasions from a sample of 525 adolescents in Malmö, of which 320 fulfilled the study’s inclusion criteria. The results show that spending a lot of time unsupervised, pursuing unstructured activities, spending a lot of time with peers, and alcohol use, are associated with offending and victimization to various extent. However, the associations vary according to outcome and in relation to the participants’ age. Lifestyle-Routine Activities Theory may explain the findings, but needs to consider age as an important factor in the future. The two conclusions from this study are that (1) offending and victimization should be treated as two different, yet related concepts in relation to situational criminogenic exposure, and that (2) it is important to add an age dimension to the study of situational criminogenic exposure because the associations between the exposure variables and the outcome variables vary from early to late adolescence.

Parental monitoring of settings is not always relevant for the prevention of adolescent crime because adolescents with strong personal moral rules and the ability to exercise self control are unlikely to offend even when they are unsupervised and know that their parents have little knowledge about their activities. Parental monitoring, commonly operationalised as parental supervision or parental knowledge, is often shown to have a negative relationship with crime involvement. However, research often ignores both the mechanism by which these relationships occur and the conditions under which they might (and might not) be found. This thesis uses specialist Space-Time Budget data (from the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study) to allow the comparison of adolescent crime rates in settings characterised by the of convergence of i) the physical presence or absence of parents and other guardians, ii) the psychological presence or absence of parents (represented by adolescent-perceived generalised parental knowledge of the circumstances of unsupervised activity) and iii) personal crime propensity (moral rules and ability to exercise self control). The conclusion derived from the results is that the physical presence of parents and other guardians in settings reduces the rate of adolescent crime committed in those settings; and the psychological presence of parents reduces the criminogenic impact of unsupervised time. Crucially however, these effects of parental monitoring are almost irrelevant for adolescents with a lower personal crime propensity, who are not likely to offend in settings irrespective of the physical or psychological absence of parents and other guardians. These findings provide support for person-environment interactions inherent in the causal model of Situational Action Theory, and provide a novel addition to evidence that could be used in future to inform policy-relevant recommendations concerning parenting behaviour and adolescent offending. Although this thesis provides new evidence about the relationship between parental monitoring and crime, the bulk of its contribution is relevant to a much wider audience. It contributes to the debate on approaches to the study of crime and crime prevention, adds clarity to key concepts and develops theoretical arguments in the field of parental monitoring and crime, develops a novel application of Situational Action Theory, extends theoretical and methodological discussions surrounding situational analysis, applies novel data and analytical methods to the study of the psychological and physical presence of guardians, generates and situates unique findings about the situational role of aspects of parental monitoring and crime, and makes some policy recommendations and suggestions about the nature and direction of future research.