Chapter 11: Routine Activities

Sharon Chamard

Routine activities The routine activities approach is both a micro-level theory that states that crime happens when three elements – a likely offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian – converge in time and space, and a macro-level theory that examines broad changes in society and how these lead to changes in community life that create new opportunities for crime. The approach is one of the “opportunity” theories of crime (along with rational choice and crime pattern theories), and also is included in the group of theories referred to as “environmental criminology” (which includes the three opportunity theories, situational crime prevention and victimization theories that focus on lifestyles). Unlike theories of criminality , which attempt to explain why some people have a propensity to commit crime while others do not, routine activities is a theory of crime – that is, it focuses both on broad crime ...

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