Situational crime prevention involves "opportunity-reducing measures that are directed at highly specific forms of crime that involve the management, design, or manipulation of the immediate environment in as systematic and permanent way as possible so as to increase the effort and risks of crime and reduce the rewards as perceived by a wide range of offenders." Opportunity theory and opportunity-reducing crime prevention share a common view of offending as purposive behavior designed to meet certain common needs or wishes of the offender. These include cash, sexual gratification, excitement, relief from boredom, admiration, the approval of peers, and the compliance of others. Blocking opportunities for crime involves different activities from those involved in reducing criminal motivation, whether through action focused on individuals who seem at risk of delinquency, on communities with high crime rates, or on entire societies in an effort to increase general compliance with laws and behavioral norms. Stores, shopping malls, public housing, insurance, companies, and banks, for example, are not prepared to address the modification of criminal propensity in an effort to prevent their criminal victimization. Their focus is on a reduction of crime opportunities, so that even those motivated to commit crimes are prevented from doing so by various means. Although situational crime prevention measures may produce relatively small reductions in crime, they can effectively target some of the most troublesome forms of crime. 42 references