Skip to main content

Sage Social Science Thesaurus

Search from vocabulary

Content language

Concept information

... > social science subjects > criminology and criminal justice > criminology > victimology > victimology and crime prevention > theory (victimology and crime prevention) > routine activities theory

Preferred term

routine activities theory  

Definition

  • A criminological theory developed by Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson in 1979. In their theoretical analysis, Felson and Cohen contend that crime is the result of the simultaneous convergence of three conditions: (1) a motivated offender, (2) a suitable target (object, place, or person), and (3) the absence of a suitable guardian (camera, police, neighbor, etc.) Routine activities theory maintains that each of these elements must be present for crime to take place. [Source: The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences; Routine Activities Theory]

Broader concept

Belongs to group

URI

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/routine_activities_theory

Download this concept:

RDF/XML TURTLE JSON-LD