Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) is the main work of American organizational communication researcher Timothy Coombs. SCCT is one of the few internationally recognized approaches in communicator research that explicitly originates from PR theory. The core of the model, developed from the mid-1990s and presented in 2007, is a framework that supports the classification of crisis situations and possible response strategies. Its claim is (1) to shape the attribution of responsibility in a crisis, (2) to change the public's perception of the organization and (3) to mitigate the negative effects of the crisis on the organization. The SCCT thus claims to be application-oriented and has been extensively tested and further developed in numerous experiments. Coombs, who also works as a consultant, draws on experiences from several industries in developing the theory. Later criticism of the SCCT's deficits now points to the theory's heuristic rather than empirical value.