Applying the Theory to the Real World - Assignment Example

From Text to Table: Applying the Theory to the Real World Introduction The study of criminal justice, international law among other fields has seemed to get attractive to most of the scholars joining colleges and university, for the purposes of furthering their education. The different jurisdictions and another court rulings present in the current 21st Century has undergone a lot of dynamism through some changes that get brought in the field of criminal justice (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010). Some scholars such as Cesare Lombroso, Marcus Felson, Lawrence E. Cohen and Jeremy Bentham among others have conducted some researchers and established various findings. These criminological scholars have come up with different suggestions as well as documentation, that contradict and oppose one another’s view and assumptions in driving their points home. This has made the field of criminology and law get high levels of interests from its scholars and other practitioners. In this law paper assignment, I am going to choose a case or event relating to criminology or criminal justice and apply one theory of the crime to my identified topic. Summary of the Case Sony is one of the best electronic companies in the United States of America, manufacturing various ranges of electronic components ranging from laptops, home theaters, televisions, iron box and fridges among many others. The company has some patent rights in the production of certain electronic goods and other computer software components. The organization deals with both retailing and wholesaling services, both locally and overseas since it has some outlets in the many parts of the world. The company also conducts Outsourcing and Insourcing for the purpose of manufacturing its electronic machines at the cheapest and more efficient way. Whenever an individual, considered having a partnership with the company, approaches Sony the organization to sign contracts with them to operate one of the company’s outlets, he/she may get considered. One is given the opportunity to open a Sony store if he or she proves to have enough initial capital to operate the business and the entrepreneurial capabilities required to perform it. Other conditions are the individual’s capacity, collateral and credit characteristics, and this has to get checked to avoid the person tarnishing the company’s name. Finally, one must have the ability to employ certified electronic personnel from the Sony Company to repair all the company’s product that got spoilt before the expiry of their warranty. Here comes Rodriguez, an entrepreneur who has met all the conditions required by the firm for one to operate an outlet under the company’s brand name. For the last two months, Rodriguez, an electronic shop operator in Boston, has kept a good track of customer relation and sales record. On 14th February 2015, the Valentine’s Day, Peter, one of Rodriguez potential clients, walks into the shop to buy a Valentine present, and a gift too, to her girlfriend, Mary. He makes up his mind to purchase the new and latest model of Sony Xperia Z130 since he believed that this was the one that he could use to express his love to Mary. The image below is the picture of this particular waterproof brand of Sony Xperia mobile phone, Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=the+latest+version+of+sony+xperia+z+mobile+phone&rlz=1C1VSNE_enKE617KE617&espv=2&biw=1078&bih=639&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=jYdvVdW6AdK07QbD04DYBQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAw This new brand of the Sony product has a warranty of two years, therefore, whoever purchases it has at most two years period of claiming it back to the shop for repair when it spoils. A month after Peter bought the phone, its operating system got cracked and therefore as the terms of purchase stipulates, he took it back and was promised to come back for it after two days. Two days down the line, he went to pick the phone, at around lunch time and only to find Rodriguez had already left for breakfast. The other electronic personnel, prescribed for Rodriguez by the Sony Inc, had left for lunch time Islamic Prayers at the nearby Mosque. Therefore, the shop was left open without anyone, despite the short duration. Since they didn’t exchange phone calls before, Peter didn’t have the way forward of reaching Rodriguez and the best option was to come later in the afternoon. He then came back at 3pm and told Rodriguez that he had come earlier before, but the shop was open without anyone attending to the customers. Later on Rodriguez, together with the electronic expert, realized that the phone must have gotten taken away since it was present at the shelve where they kept it. Unfortunately, he had not yet installed CCTV cameras in this shop, and planning to do so in the next month. Arguments and different reactions got raised that Peter must gotten be the one who took the phone from the shop without anyone’s presence, hence taking the advantage. The case became too harsh to handle and had to get taken to the industrial laws courts in Boston. Routine Activities Theory This theory is a subsidiary of rational choice theory and got founded by two scholars; Marcus Felson and Lawrence E. Cohen in the year 1970 (Cullen & Agnew, 2011). The theory postulates that for a crime to take place, three elements must get present, and these include; motivated offender, a suitable target, and a lack of guardianship. The offender must get motivation for with the immoral intentions and must possess the capabilities of acting on the present inclinations (Tibbetts & Hemmens, 2010). The target in question must get very suitable for the action he/she is to receive. The environment where the crime is to get committed must get free from any guardian who is capable of preventing the offense to occur. This theory views from the macro perspective in crime by trying to forecast the rate at which dynamism in the social and economic world impact on the general crime and victimization (Barlow & Kauzlarich, 2010). Violations of the state laws among other legislative rules cannot get reported as having some traits of randomness neither can they get started to have traits of trivial events. All the activities among other plans that individuals have during the day and night are the ones making them get more susceptible towards differently. In this case, the offender may analyze one’s activities to determine whether he or she is a suitable target or not (Akers & Jensen, 2003).  In this theory, the patterns of the structures and calculated moves of offending get directly related to the every daily pattern of social interaction. Whenever the best victim gets identified, the decision to take the action relies on the way the offender perceives the victim’s vulnerability. If the target has a lot of promising possibilities and access for the crime to occur, then the probability that the offender will undertake crime is high (Tibbetts, 2012). Application of the Theory The routine activity theory fits in this particular story that emerged from Rodriguez’s shop, in the later afternoon when Peter to pick the phone he had purchased before. Upon reaching the store, Peter found no one though the shop was open, and anyone could get in and even do some window shopping. Peter too, entered the shop, but it was very unfortunate that no one was inside there, neither Rodriguez himself nor the electronic expert from the Sony Company. All the handset, mobile phones were available on the shelves, and, therefore, due to their portability, anyone could still one or two of them and get away without necessarily getting noticed. The theory states that there are high rooms for crime to occur, especially when there is no one around who can guard the criminal action against taking place (Akers & Sellers, 2009). Therefore, the case is here is more moral relevant to the theory and the theory more applicable as well, since there were no CCTV cameras installed in this particular electronic retailing shop. Its hard to conclude if Peter picked the phone or not, since there were some possibility that another client walked in, realized that the conditions were very conducive for shoplifting, and hence picked the phone. The theory talks about the routine activities and this too apply in this case. There was a chance that one of the neighbors around the movement of Rodriguez and the electronic experts, whenever it reaches that particular time of the day. Since the other guy is Muslim, regularly without getting absent, attended the daily Islamic prayers conducted at the nearby mosque at 1pm. The same person must have also realized that at the same time when the electronic expert is living for prayers, Rodriguez too is leaving for lunch. This means that the shop got left under no guardian, and the CCTV cameras are not installed, therefore stealing from this store at that time was more appropriate. Conclusion All the theories of criminology have a lot of significance in the manner in which they explain the occurrence of criminal activities, despite their aspects of critiquing one another. The evolution and emergence of the new theories have led to increasing in validation as well as the reliability of these theories in explaining the criminal offenses. Taking the case from the case from above as an example, we can conclude by saying that Routine Activities Theory emerged in the case of Rodriguez and Peter. References Akers, R., & Jensen, G. (2003). Social learning theory and the explanation of crime. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction. Akers, R. L., & Sellers, C. S. (2009). Criminological theories: Introduction, evaluation, and application. New York: Oxford University Press. Barlow, H. D., & Kauzlarich, D. (2010). Explaining crime: A primer in criminological theory. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Cullen, F., & Wilcox, P. (2010). Encyclopedia of criminological theory. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. Cullen, F. T., & Agnew, R. (2011). Criminological theory: Past to present : Essential readings. New York: Oxford University Tibbetts, S. (2012). Criminological theory. Los Angeles: SAGE. Tibbetts, S., & Hemmens, C. (2010). Criminological theory. Los Angeles: SAGE. Read More