THeories of Crime

Routine Activity & Trait Theories

The Routine Activity Theory is based on the idea that in the absence of effective controls, offenders will prey on attractive targets (A Theory of Crime Problems, n.d.). In the case of a shopping mall with an underground garage having an increase in auto theft, auto burglary, and robberies, the handlers in the situation could be parents, relatives, friends, siblings, or spouses of the offenders. The targets are the victims of the crime. The guardians are the police and security guards. The place manager controls the behavior of offenders and targets. With crime present, it is obvious the handlers, guardians, and the place manager are either absent, weak, or corrupt.

Effective measures could include adequate lighting in the garage to increase surveillance. Lighting would make it harder for the offenders to hide and sneak up on victims. Another effective measure would be surveillance cameras that would have a continuous view of the entire garage. Other measures could be to increase the number of security guards and police surveillance in order to reduce the crime of corrupt security guards or police.

The neutralization theory explains the rationalizations of offenders (Neutralization Theory: Gresham Sykes and David Matza, n.d.). The offenders deny responsibility by justifying the acts being done due to peer pressure, anger, drug or alcohol influence, etc. The denial of injury is justified by rationalization of just borrowing things. Denial of victim rationalizes that others ask for it, as in the case of victims being injured by not complying with the offender's orders, or the victim provoked the behavior. Condemnation of the condemners rationalizes that victims are offenders too. Appeal to higher loyalties rationalizes that other things are more important, such as drug habits, gang affiliation, being poor, etc.

Part II

Where the Trait Theory argues people commit crimes based on their biological or psychological characteristics rather than moral choices (McQuade, 2009), Loughner's diagnosis after arrest of schizophrenia (Gassen, 2013) could be proved as the cause of the crime. Where schizophrenia causes psychosis, or a loss of touch with reality, the Trait Theory would argue that it was the characteristic of psychosis from the schizophrenia that actually caused the crime.

Loughner's mother described him as a loner who talked to himself, which are characteristics of schizophrenia's early signs. The suspicions of methamphetamine use and the confessions of marijuana and cocaine use are evidence of self-medication. Additional symptoms of schizophrenia is distorted thinking, such as the act of the mass shooting. Where biochemical changes and alterations in the prefrontal cortex of the brain have been observed in schizophrenic patients (Steinberg, 2012), the diagnosis can link the cause of the crime to the psychosis.