The Routine Activity Theory

more problems with the police, more use of force used by the police, and police misconduct. Because the citizens feel they can’t rely on the police, they often turn to informal ways of handling issues in their community.

Routine Activities Theory The routine activity theory looks at how humans live in a rhythm and how their activity can make them an easier target for criminal activity. According to Wheeldon (2011), three things that must be present for a crime to occur: a motivated offender, a suitable target, and a lack of guardianship. Using the routine activity theory, crime can be eliminated if one of these requirements are not met. When one of these things are missing, the theory believes that crime will be absent. The guardian

The theory focuses on the environment where the crime is likely to occur (Branic, nd). To avoid being the victim of a motivated offender one must make changes to their routine. The routine activity theory looks at how someone’s daily activities can become routine, making them an easy target for a criminal. An example is how rush hour traffic and that it is predictable during the

They typically leave their homes each day for work at the same time and vice versa. The final part is co-occurrence of other events. This relates to why something occurs. In the example of traffic, there is rarely a lot of traffic on the weekends because most people work during the week (Miller, 2009). An innovative study of social change and crime rate trends argues that most human behavior is repetitive and predictable. Additionally, every crime requires an offender willing and able to do the crime, a target suitably accessible and vulnerable, and the absence of any target protector or guardian. Timing has a lot to do with the offender’s success. The offender must know the best time to take advantage of the