A study published in the "British Journal of Criminology" in 2003 found that "for all of the media attention it has received in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, carjacking remains an under-researched and poorly understood crime." The study authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 active carjackers in St. Louis, Missouri, and based on these interviews concluded that "the decision to commit a carjacking stems most directly from a situated interaction between particular sorts of perceived opportunities and particular sorts of perceived needs and desires, this decision is activated, mediated, and shaped by participation in urban street culture."