LIFESTYLES, ROUTINE ACTIVITIES, AND RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY VICTIMIZATION

This paper reports findings from an exploratory, place specific study of the relationship between victims' lifestyles, routine activities, and residential burglary victimization. A telephone survey differentiated people with various lifestyles in terms of daily obligatory and discretionary activities. These differential lifestyles were related to variations in routine activities (i.e., pedestrian and automotive traffic) on street segments around residential areas. In a pooled cross-sectional design, street segments with higher volumes of routine activities between 1992-1996 had significantly lower burglary rates over this time period, as did street blocks with irregular periods of routine activities in 1997. Implications are discussed for the lifestyle I exposure and routine activity theories and for the movement in criminology away from explaining why individual offenders commit crimes, toward explaining why crimes happen at particular places at particular times and not others.