Criminological Theories Of Crime Prevention

Despite the fact that the majority of the today’s criminological theories are mainly focused on preventing a crime or punishing an offender, the practice reveals that in many cases the guilt may somehow be imputed to the victim as well, although the scope of imputation varies from case to case. Many criminologists, as well as the law enforcement professionals argue that studying and applying victimization concepts and other theoretical instruments is hardly useful for the needs of the contemporary law enforcement community and its tasks (Koenig, 2004). The main rationale is that theories of victimization only suggest how the culprits choose their targets, yet it fails to explain how a criminal may be stopped and corrected (Wheeler, Book &

Their main argument is that by analyzing and understand how a criminal chooses a victim and informing the public about the key ‘vulnerability’ criteria, one can conclude on the most effective methods of crime prevention. In other words, when no one will be meeting the victim criteria, it is highly possible that the criminals will not be engaging in any sort of unlawful activities.

This research pursues several objectives. Firstly, it analyzes four main theories of victimization and attempts explaining how these theories may be applied to the Carla’s case. Secondly, it discusses the strongest and the weakest victimization theory in relation to the Clara’s case, describing which theory provides the most comprehensive explanation of the crime. Finally, it discusses the extent, to which Carla was responsible for the situation that occurred.

The Carla’s Case and Theories of

Routine Activity Theory

Finally, the principles of the routine activity theory presume that the combination of a) availability of a suitable victim b) and presence of motivated and capable offenders. The more times these three elements are present, the higher are the chances that a person will be victimized. Nowadays, this theory is thought to be the most recognized in the academic circles, as well as it is most frequently used by the law enforcement communities in their propaganda campaigns (Wheeler, Book & Costello, 2009). As far as this case is concerned, this method of criminological thinking appears to be among the most relevant.

Conclusions

To summarize the main findings of this research, it is reasonable concluding that the combination of deviant place and victim precipitation theories are the most applicable to the present case. Firstly, the decision to make regular jogging exercises in the particularly unsafe neighborhood was definitely the factor, which increased exposure to the violent attack. Secondly, because Carla was jogging alone and did not agree with her partner that he should meet her reduced the ‘capable guardian’ element. Therefore, because of the combination of these two factors, Carla became