To explore why system contact often has no crime-preventative effect, the current study examined the effects of juvenile justice contact on Situational Action Theory's (SAT) causes of crime, including personal morals, deviant peer associations, and detection risk perceptions. The analysis is based on a sample of English (Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study) and German (Crime in the modern City study) juveniles. Propensity score matching was applied to estimate whether the lenient system contacts influenced the causes of crime in the year after the contact. The treatment effect estimates are mostly insignificant and relatively small. The few significant estimates in the English sample suggest that official contact slightly increased deviant peer associations and decreased feelings of moral guilt. Overall, the findings suggest that system contact may often have no crime-preventative effect as it does not (Germany), or only slightly (England) affect SAT's causes of crime. Previous studies, primarily based on the U.S. data, often reported more substantial effects that mostly operated in a crime-amplifying direction. It is speculated whether the less substantial impact in the current study can be attributed to the overall more lenient, diversion-oriented handling of the examined English and German offenders.

为了探究为什么系统接触通常没有预防犯罪的效果，本研究考察了少年司法接触对情境行动理论 (SAT) 犯罪原因的影响，包括个人道德、不正常的同伴关联和侦查风险感知。该分析基于英语（彼得伯勒青少年和青年发展研究）和德语（现代城市犯罪研究）青少年样本。应用倾向得分匹配来估计宽大系统接触是否影响接触后一年的犯罪原因。治疗效果估计值大多不显着且相对较小。英语样本中为数不多的重要估计表明，官方接触略微增加了越轨同伴的联系并减少了道德内疚感。全面的，研究结果表明，系统接触可能通常没有预防犯罪的作用，因为它不会（德国）或仅轻微（英国）影响 SAT 的犯罪原因。以前的研究，主要基于美国的数据，经常报告更实质性的影响，主要是在扩大犯罪的方向上起作用。推测当前研究中较小的实质性影响是否可归因于对被检查的英国和德国罪犯的整体更宽松、更转移注意力的处理。