Target Suitability and the Crime Drop
This is a chapter from The Criminal Act: The Role and Influence of Routine Activity Theory edited by Martin A. Andresen and Graham Farrell. This chapter is available open access under a CC BY license. Target suitability is a cornerstone of Marcus Felson's
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Graham Farrell Simon Fraser University, Canada
Ronald V. Clarke Rutgers University, USA
This work is also published as a chapter in The Criminal Act: The Role and Influence of Routine Activity Theory edited by Martin A. Andresen and Graham Farrell, 2015
Except where otherwise noted, this chapter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
© Nick Tilley, Graham Farrell, and Ronald V. Clarke 2015 The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Open access: Except where otherwise noted, this chapter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This work is also published as a chapter in The Criminal Act: The Role and Influence of Routine Activity Theory edited by Martin A. Andresen and Graham Farrell, DOI: 10.1057/9781137391322 First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries DOI: 10.1057/9781137391322.999 E-PDF ISBN: 978-1-137-52502-4 ISBN: 978-1-349-99590-5
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5 Target Suitability and the Crime Drop Nick Tilley, Graham Farrell, and Ronald V. Clarke
Introduction The initial focus of Felson’s routine activity perspective was the crime increases of the 1960s and 1970s that were largely a function of inadvertent changes in everyday life (Cohen & Felson, 1979). The rise in crime was an unintended side effect of developments in technology, transportation, and domestic life that were widely welcomed. More money, more consumer goods, more labour-saving devices, more transport, and more employment opportunities for women, for example, all brought benefits to citizens, but they also created more crime opportunities and hence sustained increases in crime. Despite that focus, the routine activity framework that emerged has universal application. It facilitates identification of the mechanisms by which crime patterns and trends occur more generally. It has four central concepts, italicized here: A crime occurs on (1) the interaction of (2) a potential offender and (3) a suitable target in the absence of (4) capable guardianship. The apparent simplicity of these concepts and the framework they represent belies their strength and flexibility. All types of crime, from domestic violence to computer attacks or terrorism, can be addressed using this framework. The framework can be applied to intended
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