Routine Activity Theory and Rational Choice Theory

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Routine Activity Theory and Rational Choice
Theory

• RAT
• Rational Choice Theory
• Prisoners Dilemma

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Routine Activity Theory

• Cohen, Felson (195)
• Opportunity makes the thief
• RAT argues that when a crime occurs, three
  things happen at the same time and in the same
  space
• 1. a suitable target is available
• 2. there is the lack of a suitable guardian to
  prevent the crime from happening
• 3. motivated offender is present

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Routine Activity Theory
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A Suitable Target

• The first condition for crime is that a suitable
  target must be available
• There are three major categories of target
• a person
• an object
• a place

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Potential Targets

• Four things make a target suitable to an offender
  and these use the acronym VIVA
• Value. The offenders value the target for what
  they gain or value the effect they have on it
• For example, a burglary might occur because the
  burglar wants the stolen items or wants the money
  made from selling them
• Offender might damage a bus stop, because he/she
  gets satisfaction (value)

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Potential Targets

• Inertia. The size or weight of an item can effect
  how suitable it is. For example, items such as
  CDs and watches are suitable targets for
  shoplifters because they are small and portable.
• Visibility. How visible a target is can affect
  its suitability. For example, items left in view
  of a window or someone counting money near a cash
  point machine are visible targets.

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Potential Targets

• Access. If a target is easy to get to, this
  increases its suitability. So, goods displayed
  outside shops, or someone walking through a
  deserted street alone at night are accessible

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Absence of a Capable Guardian

• A capable guardian is anything, either a person
  or thing, that discourages crime from taking
  place
• Police patrols, security guards, Neighbourhood
  Watch schemes, locks, fences, barriers, lighting,
  alarm systems, vigilant staff and co-workers,
  friends
• A guardian can be present, but ineffective. For
  example a CCTV camera is not a capable guardian
  if it is set up or sited wrongly
• Staff might be present in a shop, but may not
  have sufficient training or awareness to be an
  effective deterrent

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Likely Offenders

• Gain/Need poverty, to feed a drug habit, greed.
• Society/Experience/Environment living in a
  culture where crime is acceptable, because of
  peer pressure, coercion, lack of education, poor
  employment prospects, envy, as a rebellion
  against authority.
• Beliefs a belief that crime in general or
  particular crimes arent wrong, as a protest on a
  matter of principle, prejudice against certain
  minority/ethnic groups.

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The offender profile in burglary

• Male (88)
• White (68), African American (30)
• lt25 years old (64)
• Prior arrest record (79)
• Prior felony arrest record (68)
• Little offense specialization

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The victim profile in household burglary

• Highest
• lt19 years old head of household
• African American/Latino
• Incomelt15,000
• Urban resident
• Renter
• Six or more people in households
• Resident for less than 6 months
• Multifamily unit

• Lowest
• 65 or older head of household
• White/non-Latino
• Income gt75,000
• Rural/Suburban
• Owner
• Live alone
• Residents for more than 5years
• Single-family unit

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Household burglary
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Benett and Wright (1984)

• Found that burglars use a variety of cues in
  selecting targets (empirical test of RAT)
• Surveillability refers to the extent to which a
  house is overseen by neighbors or passerby

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How to chose a target

• Signs of occupancy (internal lightening, cars
  in a garage, seeing resident in the house, noise,
  voices)
• Accessibility refers to easy of entry without
  detection (alarms, window and door bars, security
  entrances, etc)

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Empirical Validity of RAT

• Sherman (1989) hot spots study
• He focused on criminology of place and used
  Minneapolis police call data
• Most crime reports (calls) came from only 3 of
  all locations in the city
• Those places attracted offenders (absence of
  guardians)

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Evaluation of RAT

• RAT is not a theory of criminal behavior, it is a
  theory of criminal victimization
• Theory does not explain why some persons are
  motivated to commit crime
• Does not explain why informal/formal control
  exercised to prevent crime
• It just assumes that informal/formal guardians
  are not present or able to prevent crime, then
  crime will occur
• Theory of common sense (Akers, 2000)
• Sit at home, watch television, decrease chance of
  being victimized

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Policy Implications

• Situational Crime Prevention stop crime by
  preventing the intersection in time and space of
  offenders and targets that lack guardianship
• Make target less attractive and offenders will
  choose not to commit crime

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Rational Choice Theory

• The theory is built around the idea that all
  action is fundamentally rational' in character
  and that people calculate the likely costs and
  benefits of any action before deciding what to do

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Main Assumptions of Rational Choice Theory

• Individuals are seen as motivated by the wants or
  goals that express their 'preferences
• They act on the basis of the information that
  they have about the conditions under which they
  are acting
• Rational choice theories hold that individuals
  must anticipate the outcomes of alternative
  courses of action and calculate that which will
  be best for them
• Rational individuals choose the alternative that
  is likely to give them the greatest satisfaction

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Are you rational?

• Information is important
• Knowledge of routine
• Traveling

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The model
Steal
Money
Earn
Prison
Actor
Illegal Business
DEBT
Borrow
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Limited Rationality

• Accurate assessment of situation and anticipation
  of all possible outcomes is impossible
• Limited rationality refers to the best possible
  decision under the circumstance
• Burglar cannot calculate the value of property
  he/she expects to take away
• Most of them do not know the extent of the
  punishment

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THE DECISION TO COMMIT A CRIMEAdapted from D.
Cornish and R. Clarke (eds.) 1986. The Reasoning
Criminal. New York Springer-Verlag.
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Rational choice model

• Background factors psychological
  characteristics, intelligence family background
  demographic factors, like what kind of
  neighborhood the criminal comes from
• Situational factors persuasion by friends,
  arguments with spouse, or whether the person has
  consumed alcohol or drugs

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Rational Choice Model

• Motive is listed as need for money or status, but
  in this classical view of crime, there is really
  no need to think about motive.
• Previous learning and experience refers to the
  previous success with similar target, criminal's
  self-perception of his/her own skills, ability to
  elude law enforcement, and get rid of the stuff
  afterwards.

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Rational choice model

• Blocked opportunities the criminal's assessment
  of what legitimate avenues are available for
  satisfying needs. The decision to be made is
  whether the same amount of money, for example,
  can be made by work, gambling, borrowing, or
  avenues other than crime
• The amount of effort required fits into this as
  the amount of time spent considering and
  evaluating whether the rewards (and costs) of
  crime outweigh alternative avenues for satisfying
  the same needs.

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Prisoners Dilemma

• Two prisoners committed a crime together
• They are both under arrest and unable to
  communicate with each other
• In order to force a confession, the authorities
  offer each prisoner separately, the following
  deal

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Prisoners Dilemma
PRISONER B
Confess
Doesnt confess
5 years
9 years
Confess
Total -10
Total -9
Goes free
5 years
PRISONER A
Goes free
2 years
Doesnt confess
Total -9
Total -4
9 years
2 years
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Paradox of the Prisoners Dilemma

• Both prisoners end up by defecting even though
  they both know that they would be better off
  cooperating
• Each of them thinks that non confessing is very
  risky
• If one confesses, he may strike lucky (goes free)
  or get 5 years , at worst.

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Research on RCT

• Tunnell (1992) found that repeat property
  offenders were unable to make reasonable
  assessment of the risk of arrest, did little
  planning for crime, and were uninformed about the
  legal penalties in the state where their crimes
  were committed

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Non-rational elements

• Max Weber (1920)
• Traditional or habitual action (brushing teeth)
• Emotional or affectual action (altruism)
• Value-oriented action (morals)

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Problems in Rational Choice

• How it is possible to explain the co-operation of
  individuals in groups, associations, and other
  forms of joint action
• If individuals calculate the personal profit from
  each course of action, why should they ever
  choose to do something that will benefit others
  more than themselves?

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Problems in Rational Choice

• The problem of social norms
• Why people seem to accept and to follow norms of
  behaviour that lead them to act in altruistic
  ways or to feel a sense of obligation that
  overrides their self-interest