Routine Activity Theory Essay Example

critical issue after a 16-year-old committed suicide as a result of being bullied by his school friends on the social media site. These case raised a lot of concerned especially to the parents and teachers as to how such incidence can occur under their watch. When a person is online the three elements that complete routine activity theory are also present. Being online makes one more vulnerable to motivated offenders as a suitable victim or target. According to routine activity theory lack of guardianship online will increase the chances of a crime to happen. On the other hand, parents at home and teachers at school can act as guardians by installing parental controls to filter what their children see on websites and what they are allowed to access. Although it’s a protective measure against cyber bullying, it cannot filter their social media networks like Twitter and Facebook and cannot filter their emails. Routine activity theory is relevant in explaining the prevalence of cyberbullying as an individual property crime according to Canadian civil law (Smith, Mahdavi, Carvalho & Tippett, 2006).

Routine activity theory can be used to give insight into cases of domestic violence. In most cases, men dominate as criminals in domestic violence by molesting, raping and abusing children and women. Children in sexually abusive family is at the highest risk, especially those below the age of 9 years because they are still naive and easily manipulated (McKay, 1994). This situation can be linked directly to the third condition from the theory of routine activity, where the suitable target becomes venerable in the absence of a capable guardian. Some of the girls who are molested by

their father tend to have a weak and submissive mother to their husbands, hence giving an opportunity for a crime to happen. Separation of the family also creates a crime opportunity on domestic violence by reducing external inhibitors against domestic violence. The capable guardian in a domestic violence case can be the social service department, the school where the target children go to, the police and also the neighbors.

The routine activity theory is in a deductive way as a general criminology theory that is trying to explain the conditions that create an opportunity for a crime to occur. This general concept of the routine activity theory is broken down into specific examples like the cyberbullying case and domestic violence case, hence qualifying as a deductive approach.

References

1. Felson, M. (2008). Crime and everyday life. (Crime and Everyday Life.) Thousand Oaks u.a.: Sage.
2. McKay, M. M. (1994). The link between domestic violence and child abuse: Assessment and treatment considerations. Child welfare, 73(1), 29.
3. Smith, P. K., Mahdavi, J., Carvalho, M., & Tippett, N. (2006). An investigation into cyberbullying, its forms, awareness and impact, and the relationship between age and gender in cyberbullying. Research Brief No. RBX03-06. London: DfES.