Routine Activity Theory Positivist Classical School 03 11 2013 Routine Activity Theory Cohen and Felson in the 70 s 3 elements must converge in TIME and SPACE for crime to occur if one is missing crime wont happen 1 motivated offender always there 2 suitable target core dimensions of criminal opportunity 3 lack of capable guardians core dimensions of criminal supply of MO as given shift of focus from offending to victimization change in crime across time and space can be explained by the opportunity core dimensions o ST benefits of crime CG costs of crime o ST and CG influenced by our everyday routine activities After world war 2 peoples focus shifted from home to outside activities women are more likely to work outside rather than staying home a lot more developed in the suburbs parking lots People leave their houses empty while going out and leaving their cars in parking lots increases the chance of car theft and property crimes Smartphones are light and expensive suitable target for thieves who are looking for the easiest way to steal things Our change in routine activities increased our chance of victimized theft The spatial and temporal structure of routine activities location type and quantity of crime increases as we shift our routine activities Predictive policing o Predict what type of crime and where and when it will happen o Based on routine activity theory o Increase use by PD s Positivist School of Criminology Classical School o Dominant theory of crime for 100 years o Philosophical argument rather than scientific one o You have a choice whether you commit a crime or not Positivist School o Emerged in the last 1800 s o Crime due to forces beyond the individuals control o You don t have a choice whether or not you commit a crime Premises of positivist school o Empiricism we can only understand crime through observations and measurements our own experiments offenders behavior criminals behaviors based o Determinism on certain forces that are beyond our control we cant decide whether or not we commit a crime Early Biological Positivism Influence of Charles Darwin 1809 1882 Biological features distinguish criminals from non criminals Precursor Franz Gall s phrenology Can tell what type of characteristics a person has based on their behavior maybe we can distinguish human beings based on something we can see biologically or physiologically Cesare Lombroso 1835 1909 o On Criminal Man 1876 Most criminals were born as criminals closer to animal stage in the evolutionary process o Atavism Criminals were born as such criminals identified by certain physical features throwbacks to a more primitive evolutionary period stigmata things that you can measure by just looking at someone s features o born criminals vs criminaloids most important distinction is born criminals more biological and physical features criminaloids minor offenders who are much more influenced by opportunities as opposed to biological features o later considered social factors o Italian criminology school Ferri Garofalo o Extermination incapacitation prison of criminals Mussolinis facism Idea that criminals and non criminals can be distinguished as physiological characteristics people who are deviant to society are easy to distinguish and can be put in prison or exterminated these factors can help us make those decisions We can study criminal behaviors based on measureable and empirical data Empiricism based on what we can see o Contribution scientific study with measureable Charles Goring 1870 1919 o Data on traits of more than 3000 convicts and a large control o Refuted Lombroso s notion of physical differences o Found criminals were shorter and lighter of diminished group intelligence o Malnutrition can result in shorter in height or lighter in weight Ernest Hooton 1887 1954 o Proposed connection between physical inferiority and crime o Inferiority genetically transmitted o Argued for the segregation of criminals o Argued that t can be transmitted across generations Heredity and Crime o Claims delinquency and crime are inherited traits Robert Dugdale The Jukes Visited a state prison in NY and found that a lot of prisoners are related to each other through family members Traced an ancestry in the Jukes family found that there were a lot of criminals and deviants Henry Goddard The Kallikak Family Similar approach of looking at their family tree and criminal record large proportion ended up being criminals Families are deviant and criminal like Social Darwinism o Application of survival of the fittest to human society o Criminals are unfit for modern civilized society o Criminals are NOT the survivors Eugenics o Movement to control genetic composition of a population o Assumes criminality genetically transmitted o Target criminals for sterilization Critique of Early Biological Positivism Suggest a genetic source for a socially defined category of behavior Unquestioned acceptance of consensus perspective o Applying criminal behaviors to socially defined behaviors Often based on inappropriate samples and faulty statistical analysis Compatible with authoritarian totalitarian thinking o Wanted to have a good justification that certain segments of the population are inferior population can be distinguished by biology and physiology 03 11 2013 03 11 2013
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