Routine Activities Theory Essay

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A Theory of Crime Events: Routine Activities Theory

INTRODUCTION
Routine activities theory, the idea that crime is unaffected by social causes such as poverty, inequality and unemployment, was brought up by Marcus Felson and Lawrence E. Cohen. This theory implies that the daily routine activities of people (i.e. where they work, routes they travel to and from work/school, people they socialize with, places they spend time, etc.) strongly influence when, where, and to who the crime occurs. Routine activities theory differs from most of criminological theories because it doesn’t focus on explaining why some people commit crimes such as the motivation to commit crime, rather than how criminal acts are brought up/taught. This theory has a lot …show more content…

To do this, researchers examine how crime rates fluctuate over time with changes routine activity trends to determine whether changes are associated with fluctuations of crime trends. If they are, this indicates support for the theory. In their initial presentation of the theory, Cohen and Felson explained why urban crime rates increased during the 60s, when the factors thought to cause violent crime, such as economic conditions, had generally improved during this time period. People were leaving their households unoccupied and unguarded more frequently, as well as exposing themselves as targets to potential motivated offenders. To test this hypothesis, Cohen and Felson developed a household activity ratio to measure the extent to which homes were left unattended. They predicted that changes in the frequency of activities away from the family and household explained crime rates over time, arguing that non-household activities increase the probability that motivated offenders will unite in time and space in the absence of capable guardians. Paying attention to time, they found that the household activity ratio was significantly related to burglary, robbery, rape, assault, and homicide rates from their study taken from 1947 to 1974. Research has generally shown that routine activities that take people away from their home tend to be associated with increases in crime

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