Problem-oriented policing involves devising analytics to better grasp a problem and create an effective response. In 1994, Derek Cornish introduced a method called crime scripting, which relies on Rational Choice Theory to develop detailed narratives of how offenders think, make decisions, and behave. The goal of this approach is to be able to lay out the sequence of acts that offenders must complete to commit a crime. Investigators can then identify points for intervention.
Adams (2024) states, "Analysts have applied crime scripting to vandalism, terrorism, child sexual abuse, theft, stolen goods-vending, human trafficking, sexual offenses, cyber-dependent crimes, and cyber-enabled crimes. Commentators have argued that all goal-based crimes could be mapped through crime script analysis, including both instrumental and expressive crimes." It can be done with individual or multiple offenders. To complete a script, analysts move through a series of standard questions about such things as steps for preparation, required tools, motivational factors, risks, and enforcement conditions.
Yet this notion isn't that recent. Crime scripting was undertaken a century earlier in the form of criminal autobiographies. It wasn't as structured, with specific types of questions, but it had the same focus and purpose.
Since the nineteenth century, criminologists have focused on factors that seem to set an........