A Framework for Testing Theories of Criminal Decision-Making Using VR Scenarios and Process Tracing and its Application to Situational Action Theory
Christoph Herrmann · 2024
This article argues that process models of criminal decision-making require not only data capturing the inputs (person and setting characteristics) and outputs of a decision process (intention/action), but also data pertaining to the decision process itself. It further proposes a rigorous methodological framework, referred to as the virtual reality process tracing approach (VRPTA), which allows researchers to test predictions not only about what decisions people make but also about how they make them. It brings together the process tracing methodology used in the cognitive, social and behavioural sciences and combines it with experimental VR scenarios used in criminology. The result is a versatile methodological framework that utilises real-time decision-making by study participants immersed in experimentally manipulated VR environments, along with process tracing techniques that allow researchers to open the black box of decision-making. To make the contribution as tangible as possible, this article discusses the novel methodological approach by reference to its application in the context of Situational Action Theory’s (SAT) perception choice process (PCP). With some modification it may also be used for a range of other process-oriented theories in criminology and beyond.