Analysis Of Cohen And Felson's Routine Activities Theory

Although, in the early October, about 20 teenage boys were arrested by the police on suspicion of the series of robbery, Asian American residents in south Sacramento have still been living in fear as they become the next target of the robbery.

Ⅱ. Cohen and Felson’s Routine Activities Theory Routine activities theory proposed by Cohen and Felson simply explains the certain situations where crime is more likely to occur. The basic assumption of routine activity theory is that crime is not so much affected by social factors, such as the concentration of poverty or social inequality as opposed to the environmental criminology arguing, but crime occurs because there are a lot of opportunities for the motivated offenders to commit the crime. Further, Cohen and Felson consider that as countries become more developed in economy and technology, the offenders find more chance to commit …show more content…
Basically, they argue that crime occurs when three conditions meet at the same time and place. They believe that crimes are more likely to occur as the number of factors are present in each condition. The first condition is that suitable targets must be available. Those targets could be either a human, object, or place. The second condition is that capable guardians must be absent. Those guardians also could be either human or objects such as fences, alarm systems or lightning. The last condition is that motivated offenders must be present. The way how the offenders get motivated relies on social factors, such as poverty or shared delinquent belief. For example, a member of street gangs is motivated by their shared belief that they are favorable to law-breaking behaviors or motivated by the peer pressure. The major critique of the