Nutshell Studies: Felson and Cohen (1979)

Routine Activities Theory has arguably been one of the most influential crime theories of recent times and this Nutshell Study provides a simple overview for time-starved students who would nevertheless like to understand the basics of the theory.

If you fancy looking at RAT a little more critically we’ve got that angle covered for you too.

Felson and Cohen (1979): Routine Activities Theory (RAT)

Illustration: The Unattended Bike

It’s a warm Friday afternoon in a busy town centre and 17-year-old student, Mia, cycles to meet friends at a café. She’s running late, so she quickly locks her bike to a lamppost, but forgets to secure the front wheel and doesn’t double-check the lock. The café is situated in a small side-street, with no CCTV and few passers-by.

19-year-old Jake has recently dropped out of college and is struggling financially. He is, in Felson and Cohen’s words, a motivated offender. While he’s not actively looking to commit a crime he has stolen before and if a situation presents itself he’s always open to the opportunity.

He walks past Mia’s expensive bike and sees it’s lightly secured. It’s what Felson and Cohen call a suitable target – low risk and potentially high reward.. A quick check tells him there’s no CCTV, no security staff, police or pedestrians. He can’t be seen from the café. There is, in Felson and Cohen’s words, the absence of a capable guardian. Jake easily breaks the lock and pedals off without being seen or interrupted.

Mia returns an hour later to find the bike has gone…

Insights…

Crime is seen as situational, so the objective is not to explain why people become criminals but rather why do certain situations encourage or prevent crime?

Focused on people’s “routine activities”, how these have changed over the past 50 years and how these changes create crime opportunities. More women working, for example, means homes are more-likely to be empty during the day and this creates opportunities for burglary.

As Right Realists they rejected the idea structural factors, such as poverty and social inequality, encouraged crime. Rather, focus was on a combination of three factors:

1. A motivated offender: someone who, while not committed to criminality, was ready and willing to commit a crime when the risks were low.

2. A suitable target: people or objects that were both vulnerable and offered relatively risk-free opportunities.

3. A capable guardian: while this could take different human (police, neighbours, passers-by) and technical (CCTV, alarms, locks…) forms, the key thing is that a target was protected in some way.

If one of these factors was missing, crime was unlikely. Crime prevention should focus on situational controls such as creating “capable guardians” that make crime much harder for the individual.

Implications…

Perspective	Implication
Functionalism	RAT shifts the focus away from structures that propel people into crime (social strains, for example) towards the situational factors that create criminal opportunities. Focus less on why people offend and more on when and where offences are likely to occur.
Marxism	RAT ignores inequalities of class and power as factors in crime. It favours individualistic over structural explanations.
Interactionism	RAT over-determines the importance of situational factors in creating crime. By focusing on the “crime triangle” it fails to explain why some individuals – but crucially not others – are motivated to commit crimes.
Right Realism	RAT fits with Right Realist arguments that there are no “root causes of crime” and that crime can only ever be controlled, not eradicated. Focus on situational crime prevention measures rather than trying to change the conditions, such as poverty and inequality, that encourage crime
Left Realism	While both argue for the importance of crime prevention, RAT does not engage with any ideas that suggest crime has root causes like social deprivation or inequality.

Exam Tips and Where to Apply Them

Evaluate against other theories, particularly any kind of structural theory (Functionalist, Marxist, Left Realist). RAT provides an opportunity to argue that crime is situational not constitutional (rooted in structural causes like poverty).

RAT reflects Right Realist claim that crime does not have “root causes”. Certain social situations combine to create criminal opportunities.

Crime Prevention: RAT at the forefront of developing various forms of situational crime prevention techniques, particularly target hardening and environmental changes that “design out crime”.