Citation

Jacobs BA, Topalli V, Wright R. Br. J. Criminol. 2003; 43(4): 673-688.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjc/43.4.673

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

For all of the media attention it has received in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, carjacking remains an under-researched and poorly understood crime. In this article, we explore the decision-making processes of active carjackers in real-life settings and circumstances, focusing on the subjective foreground conditions that move such offenders from an unmotivated state to one in which they are determined to act. Drawing from semi-structured ethnographic interviews with 28 active carjackers in St Louis, Missouri, we argue that while the decision to commit a carjacking stems most directly from a situated interaction between particular sorts of perceived opportunities and particular sorts of perceived needs and desires, this decision is activated, mediated, and shaped by participation in urban street culture.