Cohen, Lawrence E., and Marcus K. Felson: Routine Activity Theory

Routine activity theory—also sometimes referred to as lifestyle theory—has proven to be one of the more useful theories for understanding criminal victimization and offending patterns in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. This theoretical explanation, which has primarily focused on providing information regarding who is more or less likely to be a crime victim, was originally formulated by Lawrence E. Cohen and Marcus K. Felson with the 1979 publication of their seminal article “Social Change and Crime Rate Trends: A Routine Activity Approach.”

In this research, Cohen and Felson examined temporal changes in U.S. crime rates from 1947 to 1974. They highlighted the dramatic increase in predatory crime over that time period, especially that during the decade of the 1960s. At the time, most scholars attributed the rise in crime to an increase in the number of those willing to break the law—a group that Cohen and Felson called “motivated offenders.” Taking an alternative approach, they suggested that beyond the supply of motivated offenders, crime could have escalated due to profound changes in the availability of criminal opportunity. For Cohen and Felson, opportunity itself comprises two components: the availability of an attractive target (e.g., something to steal, a person to rob) and the lack of guardianship over the target (e.g., a burglar alarm, a burly companion). Crime rates thus can increase not only if society produces more motivated offenders but also if it produces more attractive targets and less guardianship. In short, Cohen and Felson posited that, between 1960 and 1970, Americans and their households became more suitable and less capably guarded targets. They further suggested that it was the changing routine, daily activities of U.S. residents that created increased opportunity in the form of increased target suitability and diminished guardianship. Particularly opportunistic activities, according to Cohen and Felson (1979), were non-household activities.

Major shifts in the labor force participation of women occurring between 1960 and 1970 were thought to underlie much of the increase in levels of non-household activities. Women's increased participation in the labor force had substantial implications for the public exposure of women and the lack of guardianship provided to households during the daytime. For instance, Cohen and Felson presented data showing that, in 1960, about 30 percent of households were unoccupied by someone 14 years or older between the hours of [Page 187]8 a.m. and 3 p.m. By 1971, that figure exceeded 40 percent. As a result, more and more households lacked capable guardianship, thus providing increased opportunity for a crime such as burglary. At the same time, women were spending more time outside the house, commuting to and from work, resulting in increased exposure to “street” predatory crime, including robbery.

Beyond work-related activities, Cohen and Felson theorized that routine leisure activities were also changing in the United States between 1960 and 1970 among both men and women. With an increasing percentage of U.S. households consisting of two working adults, there was more disposable income to be spent on leisure pursuits outside the home and on the purchase of household durable goods. This proliferation of public leisure activities and household items (especially valuable but lightweight items) also increased opportunities for crime. From the routine activity theoretical perspective provided by Cohen and Felson, these leisure and consumption patterns simply made it more likely that motivated offenders would encounter suitable targets in time/place contexts that lacked adequate guardianship.

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