ABSTRACT
In the introduction to Part II, the theories of environmental criminology were introduced as part of a theoretical movement within criminology that considered the importance of the spatial and temporal dimensions of crime. Up until this point, however, the temporal dimension has shown to be important but most often in an indirect manner. The most direct reference to the temporal dimension of crime was within routine activity theory and its original goal of explaining the increases in crime rates over a period of two decades; this resulted from a change in the routine activities of people at a societal scale. Routine activity theory is clearly a theory that considers the temporal dimension because human ecology is at its heart; understanding rhythm, tempo, and timing are critical to understanding routine activity theory. As such, it should come as no surprise that routine activity theory repeatedly emerges as the explanatory theory for temporal patterns of crime.
