ABSTRACT
The importance of space and place in criminology has been known for almost 200 years. The overarching pattern of this research is that, despite the various motivations for crime, crime is patterned across space and those crime patterns are stable over time. Consequently, understanding the nature of those spatial patterns is critical for understanding crime. Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new set of theories emerged to explain the spatial patterns of crime: routine activity theory, geometry of crime and rational choice theory – collectively known as environmental criminology. Routine activity theory, developed by Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson, states that in order to have a criminal event, a motivated offender and a suitable target must converge in space and time in the absence of a capable guardian. The origins of the contemporary theories within environmental criminology are largely related to, or became associated with, crime prevention.
