seminar: Modeling Crime Routines
speaker: Marcus Felson (Dept. of Criminal Justice, Texas State University, Hines Academic Center, 601 University Dr. SAN MARCOS, TX 78666, USA)abstract: Mathematics depends on precision. Yet many criminological concepts are imprecise. Fortunately, one field of crime theory is rather precise. Routine activity theory and situational prevention ideas are quite tangible and have a good deal of focus. They build upon a few simple concepts that can then be elaborated. These concepts are based on the tangible legal activities of ordinary people, setting the stage for illegal events to occur. It is much more precise and productive to focus is on events, not offenders. Crime is a very tangible activity feeding on other tangible activities. Major changes and variations in crime occur without requiring shifts in human inclinations. These concepts help us study crime with the most important branch of mathematics--arithmetic. Some of the major concepts: minimal elements of crime, convergences and divergences of these elements, Eck’s triangle, everyday supervision, situational prevention, crime’s three main stages: prelude, event, aftermath, diagramming criminal acts, crime’s ecosystem, crime settings, abandoned settings, thick crime habitat, crime adaptation, crime symbioses, mutualisms, parasitisms, passive assistance, foraging by offenders and other participants, crime’s defenses, and the street-gang strategy. Each of these topics invites inquiry by applied mathematicians. Marcus Felson is author of Crime and Everyday Life, as well as Crime and Nature. He is co-author of Opportunity Makes the Thief (available free online).
timetable:
Fri 18 Apr, 14:30 - 15:30, Aula Dini
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