Routine Activities Theory: Criminological Theory Of Victim

Routine Activity Theory (a.k.a R.A.T.) is a criminological theory of victimization that shares similarities with rational choice theories. This similarity is because of R.A.T.’s three main assumptions: that all people are rational, intelligent, and act in their own self interest. Originally this theory was created by Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson in 1979, but also has some inspiration from Hindelang’s work on the study of routine daily activities in 1978.
Hindelang argued that specific lifestyle characteristics of an individual’s daily activities lead to increased victimization. These included work, school, time at home, socializing in public, etc. After conducting research he concluded that people who are young, male, of African
They argued that if and when all three of these elements are present at the same time crime is going to occur. Most theorists and theories assume that decreases in victimization/crime rates are due to changes in the number of offenders or their inclination to act (for example deterrence assumes that a decrease in a potential offenders perceived or real success rate lowers their motivation, and with that the crime rate). Cohen and Felson argue the opposite by stating that there are always motivated offenders present; thus changes in crime rates are affected directly by changes in availability of targets and/or capable guardians. They cited the looting that usually results after a natural disaster as a perfect example of this. The motivation was always there (even if it was subconscious) but now there is a large amount of available targets, and a drastic drop in capable guardians. To back up their argument, Cohen and Felson used a twenty-seven year sample (1947-1974) of crime rates in the United States to show a significant relationship between household activity and changes in the crime rate. This was caused by the alteration of people’s routine daily activities over the years. A large change in this area was
The Purge takes place in the year 2022 in the United States of America. Crime has reached an all time low in this country, and all because of one radical law passed by the government. For one day per year all crime becomes legal, to help “purge” people of their unlawful motivations. The top lawmakers in this country founded this notion on Routine Activity Theory, and likely sided with most of Cohen and Felson’s views. They saw that there were always motivated offenders present, but if they gave them the other two factors once per year they could successfully satisfy people’s inner criminal intent. In turn, this would keep their motivations from overpowering them for the rest of the year, lowering overall crime. At a set time an emergency broadcast is transmitted announcing the official commencement of the purge, and starting the twenty-four hour timer. When this happens Cohen and Felson’s model of R.A.T. holds up, as the three factors occur together for the next day a massive spike in crime ensues. Some people blockade and hold up in their houses to wait out the purge, while others choose to go out hunting to loot and kill because of the significant growth of available targets and complete lack of one crucial guardian, the law. In the movie the son of one family lets a homeless man who is begging for help into their house during the purge. Now