Geweld op school als handelingsalternatief? Een partiële toets van het perceptie-keuzeproces uit de situationele-actietheorie.

Abstract

In this replica study in adolescents (N=1,040) we analyse to what extent characteristics of the environment like the presence of provocation and monitoring of teachers are related to choosing a violent response in a school context. The study starts from a key hypothesis of Situational Action Theory (SAT) and uses a randomised scenario study that allows for randomisation of environmental stimuli, while taking into account individuals’ propensity to break rules (as measured by their moral beliefs and emotions and ability to exercise self-control). The results demonstrate that high propensity adolescents are very strongly triggered by scenario criminogeneity (the accumulation of absence of monitoring and presence of provocation), while low propensity individuals are to a higher degree situationally resistant. The findings are in line with one of the key ideas of SAT.