From a nation of small villages and towns to one of

from a nation of small villages and towns to one of large urban
environments. Because metropolitan areas provide a critical
population mass, predatory criminals are better able to hide and
evade apprehension. After committing crime, criminals can
blend into the crowd, disperse their loot, and make a quick
escape using the public transportation system.
As the population became more urban, the middle class, fearing
criminal victimization, fled to the suburbs. Rather than being
safe from crime, the suburbs produced a unique set of routine

activities that promotes victimization risk. Both parents are
likely to commute to work, leaving teens unsupervised. Affluent
kids own or drive cars, date, and socialize with peers in
unsupervised settings—all behaviors that are related to both
crime and victimization. The downtown shopping district was
replaced by the suburban shopping mall. Here strangers
converge in large numbers, and youths hang out. The interior is
filled with people, so drug deals can be concealed in the
pedestrian flow. Stores have attractively displayed goods,
encouraging shoplifting and employee pilferage. Substantial
numbers of cars are parked in areas that make larceny and car
theft virtually undetectable. Cars that carry away stolen
merchandise have an undistinguished appearance: who notices
people placing items in a car in a shopping mall parking lot?
Also, shoppers can be attacked in parking lots as they walk in
isolation to and from their cars. As car ownership increases,
teens have greater access to transportation outside parental
control. Thus, even though victimization rates in urban areas are
still higher, the routine activities in the suburbs may also
produce the risk of victimization.
On December 15, 2013, attorney Dustin Friedland, of Hoboken,
was fatally shot in the parking garage of The Mall at Short Hills,
New Jersey, as he and his wife returned to their Range Rover.
Basim Henry (shown here being escorted by police after an
arraignment hearing) and four other suspects—Hanif
Thompson, Karif Ford, and Kevin Roberts—were charged with
felony murder, carjacking, and conspiracy. All four pleaded not
guilty. On March 31, 2017, Henry was found guilty on all
charges. His co-conspirators await their own trials.
AP Images/Julio Cortez
Research Support
Research supports many facets of routine activities theory.
There is evidence that the convergence of targets, guardians,
and motivated offenders can predict area crime rates for crimes
such as robbery. Cohen and Felson themselves found that
crime rates increased between 1960 and 1980 because the

number of adult caretakers at home during the day (guardians)
decreased as a result of increased female participation in the
workforce. While mothers are at work and children in day care,
homes are left unguarded. Similarly, with the growth of suburbia
and the decline of the traditional neighborhood, the number of
such familiar guardians as family, neighbors, and friends
diminished. Steven Messner and his associates found that as
adult unemployment rates increase