hi there this is margaret from criminologyweb.com and in this video i'll cover routine activities theory [Music] routine activities theory is a theory that tries to explain why crime happens it is very well known in the fields of criminology and sociology and was originally developed by lawrence cohen and marcus felsen in 1979 they published a now famous article where they proposed the central idea of the theory so what does routine activities theory say routine activities theory is based on the idea that offenders make rational choices about whether to commit a crime the idea is that crime is the result of people's everyday behavior of the way in which offenders and victims go about their daily lives crime is not something extraordinary that requires a deep psychological analysis instead the theory says that for crime to occur three elements must be present namely a motivated offender a suitable target and the absence of capable guardians when these three elements come together at the same time in the same space crime occurs so let's have a look at each of these three elements the first is a motivated offender although this is one of the three central elements routine activities theory is not very interested in it cohen and felson simply assume that a motivated offender is present they're not interested in why the offender is motivated this is where the theory is different from most criminological theories which are focused on why the offender wants to commit a crime instead routine activities theory is more interested in the victimization side which is why it's very influential in victimology so routine activity theory doesn't suggest that it takes a deep psychological motivation to commit a crime instead ordinary people can be convinced to commit crime relatively easily whether people decide to commit a crime depends on the two other elements namely whether a suitable target and guardianship are present so the second element is that a suitable target needs to be present the question here is what makes a target suitable a number of factors play a role first there is the value of a target that can refer to money like how much something is worth financially or also for example what it means for someone's status like for example having a particular gadget second there is inertia which refers to how difficult it is to move or transport an object for example it's quite difficult to move very large appliances like freezers it's much easier to transport a mobile phone third how suitable a target is depends on the visibility of the target if for example valuables are left out in plain sight it's much easier to steal them than when they're hidden and finally the access to a target is important people and objects who are in a public space that everyone can enter are easier to target compared to a private space at first sight these factors are most applicable to property crimes and robbery and routine activities was originally developed to explain direct content predatory crimes meaning crimes where an offender comes into direct physical contact with a victim but it has since been applied to many more types of crime for example drug dealing cyber crime and white collar crime target suitability does not just refer to property but also to crimes against people because it can also refer to the vulnerability of people to becoming a victim for example some victims are less able to defend themselves or some victims look like they might carry more valuable items and might therefore be more suitable targets the third element that is necessary for crime to occur is an absence of capable guardianship guardianship can be interpreted in many different ways of course one could think of the police because they can prevent crime but guardianship is meant in a much broader way in fact it's often the presence of ordinary people that can prevent crime for example if an offender is motivated to commit a crime he or she might not do it if there are many people around these people act as guardians simply by being present because they might act when they see a crime happening on the other hand of course if guardians are absent a crime is more likely to occur so on the whole routine activities theory says that crime occurs when these three elements are present in that sense crime is not something extraordinary but the product of everyday life it occurs when people's daily routines like the way they go to school or work produces opportunities for crime like when a motivated offender comes across a situation where there is an object or a victim that is not well protected conan felsen originally developed routine activities theory to explain why crime rates in many western countries increased instead of decreased between the 1950s and the 1970s many older criminological theories had said that crime is related to poverty if poverty goes down then crime goes down but the mystery was that between the 1950s and the 1970s poverty went down yet crime went up how could that be explained what conan felsen said was that the reason that crime went up was not so much due to the motivation of the offenders instead they argued that two factors caused the crime increase first people were homeless often more and more women started to work outside of the home which meant that in everyday life fewer people were present in residential areas also there were more single person households and people started going out more like on holiday that meant that overall fewer people were home and guardianship in the neighborhood went down in other words it became easier to commit crime because nobody was watching there was lower guardianship on top of that during the same period there were more and more suitable targets people started buying televisions and stereos for example that were expensive and could easily be stolen and resold so summing up it became easier to commit crime because there were fewer people watching fewer guardians and simultaneously there was more to steal namely more suitable targets summing up routine activities theory has a different focus from traditional criminological theories whereas those are focused on why offenders are motivated for crime routine activities theory is more focused on the other two elements namely on the presence of suitable targets and guardianship that doesn't mean that it is necessarily incompatible with traditional theories but its focus is different which has made it an important part of criminological theory for more fascinating criminology and criminal justice stuff subscribe to this channel and turn on the alarm bell or go to criminologyweb.com and find new posts there every week