Summary and Review

activity space: the subset of locations that people directly experience during their activities, consisting of activity nodes where people spend nontrivial amounts of time carrying out activities and the paths (routes) between them.

awareness space: the places of which a person is aware.

crime template: a concept for understanding crime site selection. It may be thought of as a checklist (a set of conditions – environmental cues) that must be satisfied for a potential offender to undertake a particular criminal event.

criminal event: crime as an event. The criminal event has five dimensions: space, time, law, offender, and target or victim. These five components are necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a crime.

defensible spaces: a model that can inhibit crime in residential environments. These environments might be specific buildings, projects, or entire neighbourhoods.

districts: regions within the cities that are defined as areas that have commonalities and identifying features such that they are a congruent spatial units such that any differences within the district must be smaller than the differences that exist between districts.

edges: the boundaries between districts that may be physical and distinct (literally crossing the tracks) or they may be subtle such as the gradual change as one passes from one neighbourhood to the next.

environmental blackcloth: a term coined by Brantingham and Brantingham (1981) which represents the built environment, social and cultural norms, institutions, and the legal environment.

environmental criminology: a branch of criminology that deals with researching special – physical and social – determinations of patterns of criminal behaviour and is closely connected with situational criminal prevention.

geometric theory of crime: demonstrates how individuals develop an individual awareness space that consists of their major routine activity nodes (e.g., home, school, workplaces – activity spaces): the travel paths that connect them and everything within the visual range of the offender.

green criminology: a branch of criminology that deals with research into criminality against the environment and associated phenomena (e.g., animal cruelty).

human ecology: the study of the dynamic interrelationships between human populations and the physical, biotic, cultural and social characteristics of their environment and the biosphere.

lived experience: personal knowledge about the world gained through direct, first-hand involvement in everyday events rather than through representations constructed by other people.

nodes: consist of places (conceptualised as points) that are places within the city that a person travels to and from (e.g., business, entertainment, or industrial districts in the context of large urban centres).

non-violent property crimes: crimes that do not involve the use of any force or injury to another person (e.g., property damage).

paths: the channels that we use to move from node to node often limited by streets, walkways, and public transit.

pattern theory of crime: examines the ways targets come to the attention of offenders and how this influences the distribution of crime events over time, space, and amongst targets.

rational choice theory: individuals use rational calculations to make rational choices and achieve outcomes that are aligned with their own personal objectives.

routine activity theory: theory by Cohen and Felson that posits that the risk of crime increases when there is the convergence of the presence of a motivated offender, suitable targets, and a lack of a capable guardian.

situational crime prevention: a highly practical and effective means of reducing specific crime problems. Essentially, it seeks to alter the situational determinants of crime so as to make crime less likely to happen.

spatial patterns: a concept in pattern theory referring to patterns in where crime occurs.

spatial criminology: a branch of criminology that measures and theorises explicitly spatial processes and relationships.

street crimes: crimes that include acts that occur in both public and private spaces, as well as interpersonal violence and property crime.

suite crimes: crimes that include those referred to as corporate crime, crimes of the powerful, state-corporate crime, and state criminality.

temporal patterns: a concept in pattern theory referring to patterns in when crime occur.

victimisation: the outcome of deliberate action taken by a person or institution to exploit, oppress, or harm another, or to destroy or illegally obtain another’s property or possessions.

violent crime: crimes that use physical force against another person to take their property (e.g., robbery).