Crime pattern theory

<h2 id="rules">Rules</h2>
<ol><li>Criminals travel on a day-to-day basis through a <a href="/facts/Sequence/gV2S4uqp">sequence</a> of activities. During these activities, they may take decisions. When this sequence is repeated daily the decisions made become invariable. This invariability creates an abstract guiding template. When decisions to commit a crime are made this is called a “crime template.</li>
<li>Usually criminals do not function individually, they are always involved in some type of networks such as family or friends. These bonds are variable and often affect the decisions made by others in the same network.</li>
<li>If criminals make decisions separate from their network, these decisions and crime templates can be combined. The combination of these decisions helps determine crime patterns.</li>
<li>Criminals or their networks commit crimes when there is a 'triggering event'. A triggering event starts a process by which an individual locates a potential target or victim that fits within the crime template.</li>
<li>There is a limited range within every individual's daily activities. Typically the range depends upon different nodes of activity such as work, school, home, entertainment, or social gathering areas and along the ordinary pathways between these nodes.</li>
<li>Criminals have typical <a href="/facts/Spatiotemporal_pattern/3H7U04Rg">spatio-temporal</a> movement patterns similar to that of a law-abiding person. As a result, the most probable area for a criminal to break the law is not far from their normal activity and awareness space.</li>
<li>Possible targets and victims usually have passive or active locations or activity spaces that share boundaries with the activity spaces or awareness space of offenders. The possible targets and victims end up being real targets or victims once the offender's willingness to break the law is set off. It is also necessary for the potential target or victim to fit the offender's crime template.</li>
<li>When the prior rules operate within the built urban form. Crime generators are created by high flows of people through and to nodal activity points. Crime attractors are created when targets are located at nodal activity points of individuals who have a greater willingness to commit crimes.</li></ol>
<h2 id="key-concepts">Key concepts</h2>
<ul><li>Awareness space: A personal perimeter created by the paths taken to and from personal nodes.</li>
<li>Personal pathway: the route that an individual takes to and from typical locations of activity in his or her daily life.</li>
<li>Node: An exact location of activity that an individual uses regularly, for example home, work or school.</li>
<li>Activity space: Describes an area of activity where crime can occur.</li>
<li>Crime generators: A location that attracts a large number of people without any <a href="/facts/Malice_aforethought/YuyNCFAW">premeditated</a> intention to commit a crime but the opportunity is too good to pass up, for example a shopping mall.</li>
<li>Crime attractors: A location that attracts offenders because of its known opportunity for crime.</li>
<li>Edges: The boundaries of an individual's awareness space.</li>
<li>Critical developments: The <a href="/facts/West_Midlands_Police/Ej76HDIJ">West Midlands Police</a> department in the United Kingdom utilized crime pattern theory to figure out where crime was being committed and how far away from home juvenile criminals travelled from home to commit crimes. In two years they analysed 258,074 crime trips. In their study they found that most journeys were less than half a mile. The amount travelled depended on the crime committed. Another interesting fact they found was that females typically travelled farther than males. This research helped the department to find new ways to prevent and control crime.</li>
<li>Empirical support: A study by Susan Wernicke in City of <a href="/facts/Overland_Park%2c_Kansas/T8aHjTAp">Overland Park, Kansas</a> found that juveniles that were arrested had committed crimes on average approximately one mile away from home, because they had a small awareness space. These youth had a smaller awareness space than most adults because they have less nodes, the typical juvenile only has three main nodes home, school and entertainment. To add to that they had no transportation which decreases the size of their awareness space as they can access only what is near home. As the juveniles grew older the study showed that the distance between home and the offense increased, because their awareness space grew larger with more nodes such as a part-time job and access to transportation.</li>
<li>Criticisms: Crime pattern theory being a branch of <a href="/facts/Situational_crime_prevention/BNsw5Pqs">situational crime prevention</a>, focuses on preventing crime by changing the environment of an offender. This perspective is criticized by social crime prevention for being 'anti-social' because it does little to help individuals prone to committing crime. Social crime prevention seeks to change individuals by different types of community involvement such as rehabilitation programs. Crime pattern theory focuses primarily on individuals and not on groups. Statistically, a large amount of crime is committed in groups. Consequently, crime pattern theory is often criticized for being too focused on individuals instead of groups.</li>
<li>Crime prevention implications: One way this can be used to help prevent crime would be to find out where suspects live or could possibly live. If a suspect consistently hits certain targets law enforcement can use this theory to try and pinpoint where he or she lives and what the suspect's next move could potentially be.</li></ul>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Environmental_criminology/Uz52aVIA">Environmental criminology</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Routine_activity_theory/IQNsYbIF">Routine activity theory</a></li></ul>

<ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121017044013/http://www.popcenter.org/learning/60steps/index.cfm?stepNum=16">"Crime Analysis for Problem Solvers in 60 Small Steps"</a>. Archived from <a href="http://www.popcenter.org/learning/60steps/index.cfm?stepNum=16">the original</a> on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2012.</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150518074711/http://www.ceamos.cl/ceamos/images/stories/actividadesyeventos/pattern_theory1.pdf">"Crime Pattern Theory"</a> (PDF). Archived from <a href="http://www.ceamos.cl/ceamos/images/stories/actividadesyeventos/pattern_theory1.pdf">the original</a> (PDF) on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2012.</li>
<li>Wortley, Richard. <i>Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis</i>.</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130422092221/http://www.eccajournal.org/V3N1S2010/V3N1S2010.pdf">"Crime Patterns and Analysis"</a> (PDF). Archived from <a href="http://www.eccajournal.org/V3N1S2010/V3N1S2010.pdf">the original</a> (PDF) on 22 April 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2012.</li>
<li>Santos, Rachel. <i>Crime Analysis and Crime Mapping</i>.</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Boba, Rachel; Santos, Rachel Boba (8 July 2005). Crime Analysis and Crime Mapping. SAGE. ISBN 978-0-7619-3092-1. <a href="978-0-7619-3092-1" target="_blank">978-0-7619-3092-1</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

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Crime pattern theory