Application of the Theory of Routine Activities in Criminology to the General Crime Situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

A significant number of criminologists, applying the theory of routine activities, believe that a criminal offense is the result of three convergent elements that combine in time and space (a motivated perpetrator, a suitable target, and the absence of adequate protection). When analyzing these three independent factors, custody is usually given a less significant position in this triangle, without any real reason. It is important to point out that the social structure can significantly affect any form of its violation because ordinary citizens can largely protect each other, as well as citizens' property. In the context of this paper, we will consider routine activities in the light of certain daily determining activities, such as education, economic crises, unemployment, mass communication means, migration, family circumstances, and free time, which can be key to explaining the rate of increase or decrease in crime. When all these activities are analyzed through the theory of routine activity, then we can have a complete overview in terms of criminal activity and the exposure to a criminal act of an individual or the social community as a whole.