Routine Activities Theory and Piracy in Bangladeshi Waters -- A Case Study

• In Event: Policing and Divergent Crimes: Piracy, Identity Theft, and Cybercrime

Abstract

The routine activities perspective contends that the potential for crime significantly increases when perpetrators, suitable targets, and a lack of capable guardians intersect in time and space. As a case study in maritime security, Bangladesh has increased its capacity for guardianship and has significantly reduced the incidence of piracy and criminal activity targeting merchant ships in proximity to the Port of Chittagong, Bangladesh’s main international container port. Unfortunately, the benefits of increased security in the Chittagong Anchorage and Port areas have not diffused to other proximate targets of piracy. Anecdotal reports show that piracy targeting fisherman and domestic trading vessels in proximity to Chittagong has either remained steady or increased with the escalating security measures applied for the benefit of international shipping. Previous routine activities research has shown that crime tends not to move around the corner when law enforcement vigor is increased in a high crime area; however, for the maritime environment, that may not be true. This presentation will show, using heretofore unpublished data, that increases in focused guardianship of one type of suitable target displaces maritime crime around the next sand bar in order to focus on unguarded and less strategically important targets for predation.

Author

• Ari Cohen, American University