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Essay / The Use of Routine Activities Theory and Psychopathy to Explain Criminal Behavior of crucial importance in the field of criminology. Applying such theories to criminal events helps us identify key contributing factors that can explain criminal behavior and have important policy implications. For the theoretical application, criminal scenario #1 was selected in which the offender was sexually assaulted as a child, had 50 previous convictions for pornography, 8 of them were related to sexual assault of children and he also pleaded guilty to sexual assault of minor children. out of 10. The purpose of this article is to apply routine activities theory and psychopathy to this scenario, as these two theories best explain criminal behavior from an environmental and neurobiological perspective. The article will provide an overview of these two theories and focus on the main concepts of these theories. The limitations of both theories and the policy implications will be discussed. Finally, the article will discuss which of these two theories best explains the scenario and how these two theories perceive crime differently. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Routine Activities Theory Understanding when, where, by whom and who was the victim are important questions in understanding crime and criminal activities. The routine activities theory developed by Cohen and Felson in 1979 believed that crime and criminal behavior are influenced by the daily activities of individuals. According to routine activities theory, people's lifestyle or activities increase their vulnerability to becoming victims because their routine activities increase their contact with offenders, which gives them the opportunity to commit crimes. In order to understand all crime and criminal behavior, routine activity theory relies on three basic elements: a motivated or potential offender, an appropriate target, and the absence of competent guardianship. Basically, routine activities theory suggests that change in an individual's daily activities influences crime because these three fundamental elements converge in a structural environment at the same space and time. An individual person's daily activities are carried out in different physical or social contexts and each different social context will have physical facilitators. According to Miller (2013), in addition to the convergence of an appropriate target and a motivated offender in space and time, there are certain situational characteristics in an environment that assist offenders in committing acts of disorder. Looking at the given scenario, MM volunteered at school and libraries, which are perfect spaces for him, as a motivated offender, to converge with a large number of children as suitable targets. However, when it comes to child sexual assault, the space was the two boys' home where he babysat. Their father was absent because he was going to work, therefore lacking a competent guardian. Overall, the routine activities theory appears to provide a good understanding of how MM sexually assaulted two children. MM playing the role of Santa Claus, volunteering at school and beinghired as a babysitter were all physical enablers in this scenario. Motivated Offender and Appropriate Targets According to routine activity theory, motivated offenders have criminal tendencies and when these offenders are motivated, they commit crimes in the presence of an appropriate target and in the absence of a capable guardian (Cohen et Felson, 1979, pp. 589-590). This is essentially an untested part of routine activities theory because it does not explain the concept of criminal motivation. This is considered one of the limitations or weaknesses of this theory. If we look at Scenario #1, using this element of routine activities theory, we cannot identify any factors that motivated the offender to commit the crime. However, if we look at his babysitting work, we can argue here that since motivated offenders tend to commit crime and wait for the opportunity, the fact that MM was often hired as a baby gave him this opportunity to commit the crime. The potential offender is defined as when the opportunity to commit a crime appears, the offender will act accordingly and the crime will be committed, while the motivated offender is defined as those individuals who actively seek opportunities to commit the crimes. Routine activities theory does not explain motivation and uses potential and motivated offenders interchangeably, although the two have different meanings. Looking at this distinction, Mr. M appears to be more of a potential offender than a motivated offender, because his babysitting job gave him the opportunity to become close to vulnerable children and he committed the crime. Although routine activities theory does not explain the offender motivation aspect, some offenses can help us perceive motivators in terms of physical or environmental context, for example sexual offenses. A detailed approach to routine activities theory shows that sex offenders are motivated by other physical motivators such as drugs, alcohol or pornography before committing the sexual offense (Sasse, 2005, p.549 ). Here we can argue that since the discovery of child sexual abuse material on MM's laptop, this environmental factor may have been the motivating factor behind his sexual offenses. Suitable targets are generally defined as people or objects that are desired, valuable, and easily accessible (Sasse, 2005, p.553). According to routine activities theory, suitable targets are individuals or objects that are valuable, accessible and visible, and can move in space and time (Tewksbury et.al, 2008, p.79 ). In our #1 scenario, the appropriate target for MM was two young boys he was hired to babysit for. There are different targets suitable for different types of crimes. For example, if there was a robbery at a convenience store, the appropriate target would be the cash register. Similarly, in the case of a sexual offense, appropriate targets would include people who are vulnerable and accessible by a potential sex offender or a location where multiple vulnerable victims converge in space. MM frequently volunteered at schools, at the library and was Santa at a children's party. Schools and libraries are perfect spaces where large numbers of vulnerable children come. This gave MM accessibility and visibility to its appropriate targets, namely these young children. According to the study, women aged 16 to 64 and children aged 9 or older are suitable targets for sex offenders. M.M.had already been convicted 50 times for sexual offenses, so he was a sex offender and to him, these children were easy targets. According to Sasse (2005), most environmental factors in children's lives are controlled by adults who can either protect them or expose them to sexual predators. As for young children, in their daily activities they are fed, cared for, touched, bathed, dressed, undressed and these activities are all carried out by adults such as nannies or educators or occasional babysitters, this which can expose children to sexual exploitation. (Young, 1997, p.286). when MM was asked to babysit, he controlled environmental factors and used this control to sexually exploit two young boys. Since young children's routine activities are dictated by adults like caregivers, this positions their parents as their competent guardians and provides opportunity for those closest to them to assess whether they are appropriate targets and to become familiar with their routine activities in order to see when. competent guardians are absent from the environmental or physical setting. Mr. M was able to access, thanks to babysitting, a physical environment or setting, that is to say their home where he could see the daily activities of their father as well as their sons and realize what time their father was absent to commit a sexual offence. According to research done using the routine activities theory approach, findings revealed that sex offenders look for suitable targets by hanging out in places like school or arcades and professions that allow access to children. This shows that routine activities theory best explains MM's criminal act while he was volunteering at school and often working as a babysitter. Capable guardianship This term can be defined as providing protection to a suitable target from the offender and studies have shown that the absence of a capable guardian increases the likelihood of victimization for suitable targets (Hannis, 2015, p.13). In our scenario, there was an absence of competent guardianship as two young boys were alone with a convicted sex offender with 50 convictions. Competent guardianship is called a supervisory position in which individuals like parents and teachers can prevent offenses. However, there are many forms of guardianship, for example video surveillance, security system and alarms. In our scenario, the father had no monitoring system in place to be able to see what was happening. Even in this form there was a distinct absence of guardianship. The guardian monitoring process is carried out by managers who have close ties and proximity to the offender who can prevent him from committing the crime, a venue manager who may be an owner or an employee of the school. As for the manager, MM became estranged from his family and was unable to maintain a stable relationship. This means that MM had no one to stop him from committing the crime. MM volunteered at school and libraries, but only committed the sexual offense while babysitting the boys. This shows that the school or libraries had competent guardians or place managers, for example teachers or parents, which is why he did not commit any sexual offenses in these spaces compared to the house where the father children, a capable guardian, was absent. Recently, the concept of guardianship has been redefined as someone who keeps tabs on an appropriate target, which may include transients, anyone charged withcaring for a child or property. PsychopathyPsychopathy is basically a disorder and is defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist which is also known as (PCL-R) and refers to a diminished capacity for remorse and behavioral control (Blair, 2003, p.5). According to psychopathy theory, offenders with psychopathic traits are emotionally shallow, selfish, callous, and lacking in remorse. Psychopathic offenders are deceitful, deceptive, and manipulative and incapable of maintaining stable relationships. Another aspect or characteristic associated with psychopaths is that they are dangerous individuals because they repeatedly victimize their victims, reoffend more quickly, and also have high recidivism rates (Porter, Fairweather, Drugge , Herve, Birt & Boer, 2000, pp.218-219). Looking at MM, he had a likeable personality and a remarkable ability to gain people's trust and at the same time he didn't tell anyone about his sexuality. This implies that MM was manipulative and intelligent enough to persuade people to trust him using deception. From a behavioral perspective, MM's criminality can be explained by psychopathy. As we know, he already has 50 previous convictions in relation to child pornography, 8 of which were of a sexual nature. This shows his rate of recidivism, that is, repeat offending, and a study on rapists and child molesters concluded that psychopathy is a strong predictor of recidivism. Psychopathic offenders reoffend more quickly because they resist treatment, have no motivation to get better, and have high dropout rates from medical treatment programs. Mr. M had already been convicted more than 50 times, but he was moving from city to city, which meant he was placed in a medical treatment program. sentence when he was convicted, but the treatment programs had to be on a voluntary basis and MM simply abandoned the treatment. Due to the failure of sex offender treatment programs, MM sexually assaulted children at the age of 48. Psychopathy has often been confused with antisocial personality disorder, but the PCL-R has allowed researchers to differentiate it using traits such as emotional detachment, manipulation of charm, lack of empathy, and superficial charm. MM often had relationships with single mothers and played on women's sympathy by saying his wife had been killed by a drunk driver. These are all signs of psychopathy because he used his charm to lure single mothers so he could have access to their children and lied about his wife because he lacks empathy. According to Craparo et.al (2013), some studies indicate a link between dysfunctional environmental factors such as abuse and neglect and psychopathy. Porter (1996) indicated that the capacity for empathy is disabled when a child is repeatedly sexually or physically abused over a long period of time. As we know, Mr. M was sexually abused for 10 years and left his family in the early 1980s. As a result of this constant abuse, it is possible for a child to become insensitive to pain or anxiety and make him less emotionally receptive than others. Detailed studies have shown that individuals with psychopathy exhibit high levels of instrumental aggression, that is, anger aimed at achieving a goal, and this is caused by dysfunction of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. There are few limits to the approach to psychopathy. One of these limitations is that there are studies showing that..
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