PREDICTING RISKS OF LARCENY THEFT VICTIMIZATION: A ROUTINE ACTIVITY ANALYSIS USING REFINED LIFESTYLE MEASURES

Routine activity theory has long been plagued by a heavy reliance on proxy measures of lifestyles, which typically include demographic variables that are regularly used as measures of lifestyle and behavior. This reliance on indirect measures forces researchers to suppose how and why these indicators are related to victimization risks. Using detailed measurements of activities and specific structural aspects of communities is clearly more desirable and beneficial when seeking to explain variances in victimization risks. This research advances theoretical understandings of victimization risks through an analysis of specific social activities, aspects of neighborhoods, and contribution of each to the risks of larceny victimization for college students. We find that greater specificity in measuring lifestyles is warranted, for it is not just leaving one's home and going out in public that increases one's risk for victimization (a typical finding of routine activity theory scholars), but where one goes and what one does that are the important larceny victimization predictors.

[1]  John Wooldredge,et al.  Research note victimization in the workplace: A test of routine activities theory , 1992 .

[2]  Robert M. O'Brien,et al.  The relationship of criminal victimization, police per capita and population density in twenty-six cities , 1980 .

[3]  John E. Eck,et al.  EXAMINING ROUTINE ACTIVITY THEORY: A REVIEW OF TWO BOOKS , 1995 .

[4]  Thomas D. Snyder,et al.  Digest of Education Statistics , 1994 .

[5]  Alfred DeMaris,et al.  Using and Interpreting Logistic Regression: A Guide for Teachers and Students , 1996 .

[6]  Susan J. Smith.  Victimisation in the Inner City: A British Case Study , 1982 .

[7]  Matthew B. Robinson,et al.  Environmental Characteristics Associated with Residential Burglaries of Student Apartment Complexes , 1997 .

[8]  James R. Kluegel,et al.  Social Inequality and Predatory Criminal Victimization: An Exposition and Test of a Formal Theory , 1981 .

[9]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  Deviant Lifestyles, Proximity to Crime, and the Offender-Victim Link in Personal Violence , 1990 .

[10]  David Riley,et al.  Time and crime: The link between teenager lifestyle and delinquency , 1987 .

[11]  Lawrence E. Cohen.  Modeling Crime Trends: a Criminal Opportunity Perspective , 1981 .

[12]  S. Singer.  Homogeneous Victim-Offender Populations: A Review and Some Research Implications , 1981 .

[13]  Janet L. Lauritsen,et al.  THE LINK BETWEEN OFFENDING AND VICTIMIZATION AMONG ADOLESCENTS , 1991 .

[14]  Patrick A. Langan,et al.  Job activities and personal crime victimization: Implications for theory☆ , 1987 .

[15]  J. S. Long,et al.  Social Differentiation in Criminal Victimization: A Test of Routine Activities/Lifestyle Theories , 1987 .

[16]  Marvin D. Krohn,et al.  Property Crime and the Routine Activities of Individuals , 1989 .

[17]  James P. Lynch,et al.  Routine activity and victimization at work , 1987 .

[18]  James P. Lynch,et al.  Ecological and Behavioral Influences on Property Victimization at Home: Implications for Opportunity Theory , 1992 .

[19]  L. Moriarty,et al.  Examining the relationship between routine activities theory and social disorganization: An analysis of property crime victimization , 1996 .

[20]  J. Lasley.  Drinking routines/lifestyles and predatory victimization: A causal analysis , 1989 .

[21]  R. Sampson.  Personal Violence by Strangers: An Extension and Test of the Opportunity Model of Predatory Victimization , 1987 .

[22]  M. Seng.  THEFT ON CAMPUS: AN ANALYSIS OF LARCENY-THEFT AT AN URBAN UNIVERSITY , 1996 .

[23]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  Linking the micro- and macro-level dimensions of lifestyle-routine activity and opportunity models of predatory victimization , 1987 .

[24]  George F. Rengert,et al.  BURGLAR ALARMS AND THE CHOICE BEHAVIOR OF BURGLARS: A SUBURBAN PHENOMENON , 1993 .

[25]  Dennis W. Roncek,et al.  Dangerous Places: Crime and Residential Environment , 1981 .

[26]  Lawrence E. Cohen,et al.  The Determinants of Larceny: an Empirical and Theoretical Study , 1980 .

[27]  J. Sloan.  The correlates of campus crime: An analysis of reported crimes on college and university campuses , 1994 .

[28]  PREDICTING HOUSEHOLD VICTIMIZATION UTILIZING A MULTI-LEVEL ROUTINE ACTIVITY APPROACH , 1996 .

[29]  William Spelman,et al.  Abandoned buildings: Magnets for crime? , 1993 .