ABSTRACT
Routine Activities and Crime Prevention: Armchair Concepts and Practical Action by Marcus Felson. The routine activity approach begins with the physical convergence of three minimal elements of an ordinary crime; the presence of a likely offender and a suitable target in the absence of a capable guardian against crime. Shifting to the environmental level of analysis, this approach considers flows of likely offenders, suitable targets, and capable guardians as people and things move about or stay put in time and space. Crime prevention in these terms seeks to modify everyday life slightly so as to (1) keep flows of likely offenders away from flows of suitable targets; and (2) keep flows of capable guardians near flows of suitable targets. This paper sums up the practice and potential for designing out crime with four armchair variables: (1) strategy vs. tactics; (2) simple vs. complex prevention; (3) prevention in small areas vs. large areas; and (4) narrow vs. broad categories of crime prevented. Comprehensive planning for crime prevention is defined and its advantages or disadvantages over more specific prevention efforts are considered. (Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention Vol. 1. No. 1 1992. National Council for Crime Prevention).
