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Routine activity theory, developed by Marcus Felson and Lawrence Cohen, draws upon control theories and explains crime in terms of crime opportunities that occur in everyday life. [62] A crime opportunity requires that elements converge in time and place including a motivated offender, suitable target or victim, and lack of a capable guardian. [63]
Crime opportunity theory suggests that offenders make rational choices and thus choose targets that offer a high reward with little effort and risk. The occurrence of a crime depends on two things: the presence of at least one motivated offender who is ready and willing to engage in a crime, and the conditions of the environment in which that offender is situated, to wit, opportunities for crime.
The theory has been extensively applied and has become one of the most cited theories in criminology. Unlike criminological theories of criminality, routine activity theory studies crime as an event, closely relates crime to its environment and emphasizes its ecological process, [2] thereby diverting academic attention away from mere offenders.
In criminology, social control theory proposes that exploiting the process of socialization and social learning builds self-control and reduces the inclination to indulge in behavior recognized as antisocial. It derived from functionalist theories of crime and was developed by Ivan Nye (1958), who proposed that there were three types of control:
The theory is related to earlier drift theory (David Matza, Delinquency and Drift, 1964) where people use the techniques of neutralization to drift in and out of delinquent behaviour, and systematic crime theory (an aspect of social disorganization theory developed by the Chicago School), where Edwin Sutherland proposed that the failure of families and extended kin groups expands the realm of ...
Crime pattern theory is a way of explaining why people commit crimes in certain areas.. Crime is not random, it is either planned or opportunistic. [citation needed]According to the theory crime happens when the activity space of a victim or target intersects with the activity space of an offender.
Contrary to the general theory of crime that presents low self-control as a characteristic of an individual that influences one's behavior, the criminal spin theory [9] presents the reduction of self-control as a phenomenological process. This process can be acute, a one-time only that is not typical to the individual, or it can develop into a ...
Critical criminologists assert that how crime is defined is socially and historically contingent, that is, what constitutes a crime varies in different social situations and different periods of history. The conclusion that critical criminological theorists draw from this is that crime is socially constructed by the state and those in power. [8]