Environmental Criminology as a Domain to Prevent Crime Criminal activity occurs on a daily basis and these crimes may consist of serious offences or less serious offences. Based on the routine activity theory, it specifies that there are three elements of a crime: a likely offender, a suitable target and an absence of guardian against crime. When a motivated offender approaches a suitable target, the offender seizes the opportunity and allows the target to become a powerless victim (Felson, 1987). Most crimes occur in the three social domains: at home, leisure or work. These areas are a essential part of our routine activity, hence when we are placed in a situation where we are vulnerable to crime, we feel fear and thus we take preventative …show more content…
Ray Jeffrey, but is based on Paul and Patricia Brantingham’s core ideas. It emphasizes the environment as a key area of interest in understanding how and why crime occurs (Farrel & Hodgkinson, 2015). It is an umbrella term where several underlying theories exist. Routine activity theory and crime pattern theory are two dominant theories under environmental criminology. The routine activity theory articulates how the daily routine of individuals provide opportunities for potential offenders to commit a crime. This daily routine comprises of nodes, paths and edges where victims are likely to meet their offenders because the daily routine of an offender follows similar to the routine of their victim (Brantingham & Brantingham, 1995). It is known as environmental criminology as most of these crimes are dependent on the surrounding environment. When both the offender and victim are within the same environment, the potential offender may seize the opportunity to commit a crime when the chance presents itself. Environments that are highly populated such as shopping centres, bus stops and schools act as crime attractors, where crime is likely to occur in because there are suitable targets and there is a lack of guardianship. Potential offenders must take spatial awareness into consideration, as the surroundings play an influential role in the result of the crime. The surrounding environment can determine whether a crime can …show more content…
Crime occurs when people are carefree and are ignorant of situational crime prevention. The situational crime prevention prescribes target hardening, increasing the risks or costs of committing a crime and reducing the overall rewards from the crime. Some steps individuals may take to prevent crime is to ensure all doors are locked and keeping valuables out of sight. This will reduce the incentive for potential offenders (Cartwright, 2015). If these steps of precaution are not taken, potential offenders may view it as an easy crime. According to the principle of least effort, people tend to search for the shortest route and find the easiest means to accomplish something. If it is easy to commit the crime, it is likely that the potential offender will commit the crime (Felson, 1987). When these ignorant individuals are grouped together, they may create a high risk area where offenders may return and commit a repeated offence. These reputable areas that lack guardianship become crime generators and crime attractors. The crime pattern theory by Paul and Patricia Brantingham states that crime is highly patterned and is usually concentrated in certain areas, therefore environmental criminology is able to determine where crime may occur (Cartwright,
Based upon the evidence provided on the six elements of a good theory, the Routine Activities Theory is a sound theory. These elements provide that the theory is scientific. The theory has brought together its three elements to help determine why crime occurs. Through research by multiple detached researchers, its hypotheses have been confirmed through tests and empirical evidence.
Many of the traditional criminological theories focused more on biological, psychological and sociological explanations of crime rather than on the cost and benefits of crime. More conservative approaches, including routine actives, lifestyle exposure and opportunity theories have clearly incorporated crime rate patterns as a fundamental part of analyzing the economics of crime. Crime statistics are important for the simple reason that they help put theories into a logical perspective. For example, a prospective home owner may want to look at crime rates in areas of potential occupancy. On a more complex level, it helps law enforcement and legislators create effective crime reduction programs. Furthermore, it also helps these agencies determine if crime prevention programs, that have been in effect, have been successful. There are many factors that influence the rates of crime including socio economic status, geographical location, culture and other lifestyle factors. More specifically, Messner and Blau (1987) used routine activities theory to test the relationship between the indicators of leisure activities and the rate of serious crimes. They discussed two types of leisure actives, the first being a household pastime, which primarily focused on television watching. The second type was a non-household leisure event which was consisted of attendance to sporting events, cinemas, and entertainment districts. The focus of this paper will be to study the effects that substantial amounts of leisure activities have on the offender and the victim. Leisure activities not only make a crime more opportunistic for offenders, it may also provide offenders with motivation to engage in criminal activity. On the other hand, it may also be argue...
A highly debated topic concerns whether criminals commit crimes because of a social pressure or an individual urge. The strain theory supports crime as a social pressure because, as Frank Schmalleger suggests in Criminology Today 222, crime is an adaptive behavior that coincides with problems caused by frustration or unpleasant social surroundings. Also, culture conflict theory states the cause of delinquent behavior is because different social classes conflicting morals of what is appropriate or proper behavior, (Schmalleger 228). Other people believe blaming crime on the economy or where they grew up is making an excuse for criminals instead of making them take responsibility for their actions, as stated by CQ writer Peter Katel. These different views started with statistics taken on crime in the early 1800s. Andre Michel Guerry of France was one of the first examiners of “the moral health of nations” in the early 19th century, (Schmalleger 35). Another early crime statistician was Adolphe Quetelet of Belgium . Quetelet evaluated the crime rates between weather, sex, and age. His findings that climate contributes to high or low crime rate is a main factor in today’s fight against crime. It is doubtful this issue will ever be settled since there are too many pros and cons to each side. However, while specialists’ dispute this, crime is not stopping. There needs to be a way, or possibly several ways, to reduce criminal activity. It is doubtful criminal activity will ever be put to an end. The same is to be said about why people commit crime, but knowing if it is done socially or individually can help with the fight against it. In the end, individuals should take responsibility for their actions, but...
Criminology as a genre is defined as the scientific study of crime, as well as its causes, law enforcement interaction, criminal behavior, and means of prevention. In its own way criminology is the history of humanity. As long as people have been on earth there has been criminal activity. Much like most other work atmospheres, it was a male dominated field. A woman seeking to work in criminology was unheard of. Men filled the jobs as police officers, lawyers, judges, and politicians. However, in the 1860s Belva Lockwood became determined to pave the way for women in criminology. As a women’s rights activist, she became one of the most influential women in criminology.
Individuals have the power to make their actions and behaviors secret to anyone and still be considered normal. In Edmund’s study (2007), he talked about how Dr. Zimbardo’s experiment and tested how two different groups of individuals, are given roles that they must fulfill. People can change without others knowing they did. Studies have shown that people are willing to change their behavior in order to fit in. People change their behavior under three circumstances: motivated individual, lack of guardianship, and suitable target (Tillyer, 2011). In Flora’s study (2007), she talks about the routine activity’s theory. It explains why individuals are more likely to commit behaviors that they normally would not do. A motivated offender is where an individual sees an opportunity to commit a crime. Lack of guardianship is where a parental guardian or someone in charge is absent in a situation. Suitable target is where an offender finds an individual that is an easy target. When an individual has all three of these conditions, it makes it easier for them to commit a crime. The theory suggests that individuals are more likely to change their behavior.
What are theories of crime? Why are they important? In this paper, will discuss two crime theories. Social learning theory and the labeling theory. We will compare both crime theories. It will also explain how these theories are related to specific crimes. The two theories discussed will also explain the policy implications. Finally, we will address what types of programs can be created to mitigate specific crimes related to the causation theories.
This theory however as some have argued has emerged from social disorganisation theory, which sees the causes of crime as a matter of macro level disadvantage. Macro level disadvantage are the following: low socioeconomic status, ethnic or racial heterogeneity, these things they believe are the reasons for crime due to the knock on effect these factors have on the community network and schools. Consequently, if th...
Rational Choice Theory is the belief that man is a reasonable actor who decides means and ends, costs and benefits, and makes rational choices. Routine activity theory provides a simple and powerful insight into the causes of crime problems. At its heart is the idea that in the absence of effective controls, offenders will prey upon attractive targets. Social Control Theory gives an explanation for how behavior conforms to that which is generally expected in society. Social disorganization theory explains the ecological differences in levels of crime based on structural and cultural factors shaping the nature of the social order across communities. This approach alters the sociological studies on which is any of two or more random variables exhibiting correlated variation of urban growth to examine the concentration and stability of rates of criminal behavior. Strain Theory. Conflict theory explains the belief that individuals choose to commit a crime, which many po...
Ronald V Clarke originally developed the idea of situational crime prevention in the 1980’s (Brantingham & Brantingham 2005). This particular crime prevention theory addresses techniques that increase the effort required to commit the crime, increase the risks involved with committing the crime, reducing the reward gained by the offender after committing the crime, reducing the provocation between the offender and others and remove excuses (Brantingham & Brantingham 2005). Majority of crime is believed to be committed because there are no high risks of being caught and the rewards outweigh the risks (Brantingham & Brantingham 2005). Increasing the effort by controlling access to locations and target hardening can deflect many offenders, as more effort is needed to commit the crime (Brantingham & Brantingham 2005). Another main technique would be to increase the risks; this may be achieved by extending guardianship, creating natural surveillance or artificial surveillance such as CCTV (Brantingham & Brantingham 2005).
Criminology is the scientific study of crimes and criminal behaviour. Criminological theories and research aim at giving us an understanding of the reasons and factors that influence why people commit crimes. There are two main types of crime: Blue collar crime and white collar crime. Blue-collar crimes is the term used to describe crimes that are committed primarily by people who are from a lower socioeconomic class while white-collar crime is usually committed by people in a higher socioeconomic class. The main difference between the two is “white-collar” crime is usually considered to be a victimless crime in which there is no one directly made to be in a worse situation than what they were in before . An example of the more common street
Wilson, James and Herrnstein, Richard. "Crime & Human Nature: The Definitive Study of the Causes of Crime" New York: Free Press, 1998.
Crime exists everywhere. It is exists in our country, in the big cities, the small towns, schools, and even in homes. Crime is defined as “any action that is a violation of law”. These violations may be pending, but in order to at least lower the crime rate, an understanding of why the crimes are committed must first be sought. There are many theories that are able to explain crimes, but three very important ones are rational choice theory, social disorganization theory and strain theory.
In today’s society there is a high fear of crime by society. Society actions show that there is anxiety and fear about crime. Therefore, anxiety and fear about crime has placid our cities and communities. Society express fear of being victimized by crimes, criminal activities, and behaviors. Therefore, according to, (Crime, 1999) states that “ the level of fear that a person holds depends on many factors, including but, not limited to: “ gender, age, any past experiences with crime that a person may have, where one lives, and one’s ethnicity.” All of those factors have a huge impact on one’s fear level.
Environmental Criminology focuses more on people given opportunity to commit crimes rather than why individuals commit crimes. This is seemingly a confusing theory to grip but there are many different theories that fall into the metaphorical folder of Environmental Criminology. Some of these theories that stood out to me personally are the Situational Crime Prevention Theory, Offender Search Theory, Broken Windows Theory, and James Q. Wilson’s, “Thinking About Crime.” I believe that these four theories/writings have a significant amount to do with crime and why criminals commit the crimes they do.
Different schools of thought propose varying theoretical models of criminality. It is agreeable that criminal behaviour is deep rooted in societies and screams for attention. Biological, Social ecological and psychological model theories are key to helping researchers gain deeper comprehension of criminal behaviour and ways to avert them before they become a menace to society. All these theories put forward a multitude of factors on the outlooks on crime. All these theories have valid relevancy to continuous research on criminal behaviour.