Which of the following is a maintenance factor example in integration theories of crime?

• A. Genetics
• B. Childhood aggression
• C. Peer pressure
• D. Environment rich in opportunities to offend

Answer: (D)

Maintenance factors are the external conditions that keep criminal behavior going once it has started. They don’t create the initial impulse by themselves, but they sustain and reproduce offending by making it easier and more rewarding to continue. An environment rich in opportunities to offend provides repeated chances to commit offenses, lowers the costs or barriers to offending, and reinforces the behavior through ease and frequency of access. This is why it fits as a maintenance factor: it keeps crime active over time by furnishing ongoing opportunities. By contrast, genetics reflects an underlying predisposition, childhood aggression is an early risk trait, and peer pressure is a social influence that can affect initiation or escalation but does not describe the ongoing opportunity structure that maintains crime.