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GST 201 – Spatial Analysis of Crime�Unit 5 – Criminology Spatial Theories�� � �

Empowering Colleges:

Growing the Workforce

Name of Author: Professor Phil Canter and Thomas Mueller, Ph.D., GIS

Title of Author: Geospatial Technology Professors

Email if author: Mueller@calu.edu

Based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants DUE 1304591, DUE 164409, DUE 1700496, DUE 1937177, Due 1938717 DUE 1937237, 2030206 and 2015927. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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PowerPoint Lectures 1 - 6

  • The GeoTech Center wants to thank Professor Phil Canter for the use of his lecture notes in Lecture 1 – 6.
  • Tom Mueller made some changes and added a few slides

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Deterrence and Rational Choice Theories

  • Date back to the 18th century in response to a system of law, courts, and penalties which were arbitrary, biased, and capricious.
  • Believed that a philosophical rationale was needed to reform laws and the courts.
  • Lead to the removal of cruel and unusual punishment.

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Deterrence and Rational Choice Theories

  • Classical criminology discusses people’s action as free will.
  • People determine to obey (or not) the law.
  • Objective: Make risk of pain sufficient enough to discourage criminal acts, while at the same time, ensuring the law was applied fairly and equally.

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Deterrence Theory

  • Crime deterrence will result if legal penalties are:
    • certain
    • severe
    • swift (celerity)
  • Deterrence Categories:
    • specific or special deterrence
    • general deterrence

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Deterrence Theory

  • Specific deterrence states that offenders will not repeat criminal behavior if they are arrested and firmly punished.
  • General deterrence is the example served by the state’s punishment of offenders to those who have NOT engaged in criminal acts.

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Rational Choice Theory

  • Used Economic Theory’s “expected utility” principle
  • Expected utility principle states rational decisions are made by people because of the need to increase profit and reduce loss.
  • The theory states offenders recognize the effort, risks, and costs of committing crime.
  • Crime prevention programs are based on this theory.

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Routine Activities Theory

  • Originally developed by Cohen and Felson (1979).
  • Contains elements of deterrence and rational choice theories.
  • States that crime will occur when three things occur at the same time and space (place):
    • motivated offender
    • victim or target
    • lack of a capable guardian
  • Used to explain increases in crime resulting from changes in workforce composition and family activities.

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Routine Activities Theory

  • Felson (1986) later integrated Routine Activities Theory with Control Theory.
  • Felson discussed handlers which are people who will prevent the offender from committing a crime. Handlers include parents, family, teachers, etc.

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Situational Action Theory

  • Proposed by Wikstrőm and Treiber (2007, 2008)
  • Discuss the Individual’s relationship with the their social environment in crime
  • Individuals make decisions based on the different possibilities of their actions.
  • Their decision is based on behavior-settings.
  • Behavior-settings are defined as the section of the environment that individuals can gather information based on their senses in a particular time and space.

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Situational Action Theory

  • A person experiences multiple social environments at multiple places and different times
  • At any one point in time and space, a social environment could influence someone to commit a crime (or not commit a crime).
  • The configuration of settings, defined by one’s social environment at any given point in time and space, is referred to as their respective activity field.
  • Activity fields need to be measured by time (hourly).

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Crime Pattern Theory

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  • Developed by Brantingham & Brantingham, and Eck (1994).
  • Integrates Rational Choice and Routine Activities Theories to explain distribution of crime across space.
  • Eck suggested there may be a third class of crime controllers called “managers”.
  • Managers are people who manage places.
  • Effective place management either allows offenders and targets to coexist, or they keep potential offenders out of places.

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Crime Pattern Theory

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  • Explores interaction of offenders with their physical and social environments which impact the choice of target.
  • Location of crime, and the probability of crime occurring, depend on distribution of targets, offenders, guardians, handlers, and managers.

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Crime Pattern Theory

  • Concept of place is important.
  • Characteristics influence likelihood of an event.
  • Crime pattern theorists focus on how offenders discover and access a place.

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Crime Pattern Theory

Depiction of Eck’s Triplets

Eck

Felson, 1986

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A.

B.

C.

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Target

Offender

Place

2. Directly Supervised by

Guardian

Handler

Manager

1. Supervision of

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Disaggregating Types of Supervisor by Level of Responsibility

With Examples

Types of Supervisor and Objects of Supervision

GUARDIANS

Monitoring Targets

HANDLERS

Monitoring Likely Offenders

MANAGERS Monitoring Amenable Places

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Student keeps eye on wallet or purse

Parent makes sure child gets home

Owner monitors near residence

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Cashier monitors goods

Principal makes sure student is back at school

Doorman protects building

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Financial officer accounts for shoplifting

Cashier discourages skipping school by kids

Hotel worker stops trespasser

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Public stops shoplifting

Public question children at mall

Customer in parking structure

1. Personal (Owners,

family, friends)

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2. Assigned (Employees,

With specific assignment)

3. Diffuse (Employees with

General assignment)

4. General (Strangers,

Other citizens)

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Awareness Space

  • Defines part of mental map that is most familiar to an offender.
  • Geographic subset of mental map.
  • Awareness space is the offender’s target area.
  • Awareness space contains targets.
  • Awareness space is shaped through routine activities.
  • Also called “Activity space”

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Research on Awareness Space

  • Young people have more limited awareness space than working age people.
  • Females have more limited awareness space than males.
  • Black offenders have less spatial awareness than white criminals.
  • Poorer people have more limited awareness space.
  • Unemployed people have more limited awareness space.
  • Inner-city residents have smaller awareness spaces.

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Impact of Awareness Space on Crime Patterns

  • Most criminals will commit crimes within their awareness space.
  • Crime occurs in proximity to nodes and paths that are used during routine activities.
  • Criminals tend to operate in neighborhoods they know well.
  • Burglars chose crime sites (targets) closer to home.

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Instead of a Lab this week…

  • There is no lab scheduled for this unit. This might be an opportunity for the educator to prepare a small ArcGIS Pro quiz to test the students’ knowledge on some simple concepts (without use of lab materials, etc.)
  • How many records or fields are in the layer?
  • Select an attribute – how many features are selected?

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See GeoTech Center website (https://geotechcenter.org) �for additional Model Courses and other curriculum resources. �����Note: some content is a derivative of other CC authors���

Author: Phil Canter and Thomas Mueller, Ph.D., GISP

Author Title

Email of author: Mueller@calu.edu

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09-09-2020 V7 (Bold 12)