Title

Examining Rates Of Sexual Offenses From A Routine Activities Perspective

Keywords

Routine activities theory; Sex offenders; Sex offenses

Abstract

Recent policies enacted regarding sex offenders include the formation of a publicly accessible sex offender registry, community notification, and residential restrictions. Often the motivation behind these policies is to get information out about sex offenders to community members so that these communities can effectively guard against any revictimization by the sex offenders among them. Theoretically, the premise for this type of legislation corresponds to relationships specified by routine activities theory. The theory states that if guardians can interrupt potential offenders as they are preying on suitable targets, these crimes-in-the-making will not occur. The present study assesses routine activities theory via a study of the presence of potential offenders (as measured by the number of registered sex offenders in the area), as well as community and resident characteristics that measure the presence and types of suitable targets and the existence of guardians and guardianship structures. We find that only the presence of certain types of suitable targets has an influence on the variation in the rate of sex offenses across these communities. Policy implications are discussed.

Publication Date

1-1-2008

Publication Title

Victims and Offenders

Volume

3

Issue

1

Number of Pages

75-85

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/15564880701752306

Socpus ID

38549134896 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/38549134896

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS