Assessing the Behavioral Context of Victimization

occur. The routine activities of citizens are widely viewed as explaining in part who falls victim to crime. The relatively low rates of victimization reported by the elderly are commonly attributed to their generally circumspect behavior, which seems to grant them less exposure to risk. People also vary in the extent to which they take specific precautions, such as installing special locks or alarms, to avoid falling victim. Those encouraging community crime prevention efforts have acted on the presumption that these activities yield positive benefits. Yet a close reading of the research on victimization fails to support most of these assumptions. Most studies of crime-related behavior have been underconceptualized and have employed inadequate measures, hence have not yielded reliable findings with regard to the personal significance of what people do.