SG2043- Key Issues in Criminolog
Lecture 3
‘CRIME’ & EVERYDAY LIFE
, LECTURE OVERVIEW
❖Criminological perspectives on
everyday life and ‘criminality’
❖Routine Activity Theory
❖Situational Crime Prevention:
introduction to & criticism(s) of
, UNDERSTANDING EVERYDAY LIFE
❖Making the familiar strange and the strange familiar; studying ‘th
big’ in ‘the small’
❖Not just what society is, but sow it is (made) possible (Simmel, 19
❖‘Reading’, interpreting everyday social life as (if it were) a text
❖Violence and conflict as “a form of socialization” (Simmel, 1904:
an integral, unavoidable and ‘normal’ part of social life (see, Durk
quote – week 2 lecture slides)
, QUOTE (COLLINS, 1998: 2-3)
“There is a sociology of everything. You can turn on your sociological eye n
matter where you are or what you are doing. Stuck in a boring committee m
(for that matter, a sociology department meeting), you can check the pattern
who is sitting next to whom, who gets the floor, who makes eye contact, and
is the rhythm of laughter (forced or spontaneous) or of pompous speechmak
Walking down the street, or out for a run, you can scan the class and ethnic p
of the neighborhood, look for lines of age segregation, or for little pockets of
solidarity. Waiting for a medical appointment, you can read the professions a
bureaucracy instead of old copies of National Geographic. Caught in a traffic
you can study the correlation of car models with bumper stickers or with the
of music blaring from radios. There is literally nothing you can’t see in a fresh
you turn your sociological eye to it. Being a sociologist means never having
bored”
, QUOTE (SELVON, 1957)
“What is all this, what is the
meaning of all these things that
happen to people, the movement
from one place to another, lighting a
cigarette, slipping a coin into a slot
and pulling a drawer for chocolate,
buying a return ticket, waiting for a
bus, working the crossword puzzle in
the Evening Standard?”
, ROUTINE ACTIVITY THEORY
❖‘Crime’ as a routine, mundane, ordinary, “every day” occurrence
of social life’s rhythms, built into life in big cities and pervades the
of those living in them
❖To intervene and prevent ‘crime’, therefore, means attending and
responding to the routine activities where it manifests itself
❖Routine activity theory, and the situational crime prevention
measures it is often associated with, argues for designing out
opportunities for ‘crime’ that are designed into our urban
environment(s); controlling that environment to eliminate the
occurrence of ‘crime’ and doing so where ‘crime’ occurs as a rou
problem
Lecture 3
‘CRIME’ & EVERYDAY LIFE
, LECTURE OVERVIEW
❖Criminological perspectives on
everyday life and ‘criminality’
❖Routine Activity Theory
❖Situational Crime Prevention:
introduction to & criticism(s) of
, UNDERSTANDING EVERYDAY LIFE
❖Making the familiar strange and the strange familiar; studying ‘th
big’ in ‘the small’
❖Not just what society is, but sow it is (made) possible (Simmel, 19
❖‘Reading’, interpreting everyday social life as (if it were) a text
❖Violence and conflict as “a form of socialization” (Simmel, 1904:
an integral, unavoidable and ‘normal’ part of social life (see, Durk
quote – week 2 lecture slides)
, QUOTE (COLLINS, 1998: 2-3)
“There is a sociology of everything. You can turn on your sociological eye n
matter where you are or what you are doing. Stuck in a boring committee m
(for that matter, a sociology department meeting), you can check the pattern
who is sitting next to whom, who gets the floor, who makes eye contact, and
is the rhythm of laughter (forced or spontaneous) or of pompous speechmak
Walking down the street, or out for a run, you can scan the class and ethnic p
of the neighborhood, look for lines of age segregation, or for little pockets of
solidarity. Waiting for a medical appointment, you can read the professions a
bureaucracy instead of old copies of National Geographic. Caught in a traffic
you can study the correlation of car models with bumper stickers or with the
of music blaring from radios. There is literally nothing you can’t see in a fresh
you turn your sociological eye to it. Being a sociologist means never having
bored”
, QUOTE (SELVON, 1957)
“What is all this, what is the
meaning of all these things that
happen to people, the movement
from one place to another, lighting a
cigarette, slipping a coin into a slot
and pulling a drawer for chocolate,
buying a return ticket, waiting for a
bus, working the crossword puzzle in
the Evening Standard?”
, ROUTINE ACTIVITY THEORY
❖‘Crime’ as a routine, mundane, ordinary, “every day” occurrence
of social life’s rhythms, built into life in big cities and pervades the
of those living in them
❖To intervene and prevent ‘crime’, therefore, means attending and
responding to the routine activities where it manifests itself
❖Routine activity theory, and the situational crime prevention
measures it is often associated with, argues for designing out
opportunities for ‘crime’ that are designed into our urban
environment(s); controlling that environment to eliminate the
occurrence of ‘crime’ and doing so where ‘crime’ occurs as a rou
problem
