Criminology

The subject is well connected with individuals who have previously committed various crimes including robbery and therefore has an idea of how to carry out a robbery and to minimize the chances of being caught. In his memory, he has a script that he will follow throughout the operation. His first decision is to rob the shop where he works in order to get the  4,000 that he needs. Having made up his mind   to rob the shop,  his first action is to survey and note the placement of the valuables and cash that he plans to take during the heist. This presents no problem as he does this during his working hours in the shop. The next action is to facilitate his entry into the shop with as little trouble as possible. He therefore decides to rig the backdoor so that it does not close properly. After making this decision, he went ahead and carried out this action. He rigged the door with gum so that it did not close properly at closing time on Saturday, thereby ensuring that his entry later during the robbery would be smooth.

On coming back for the robbery, he entered the shop without any problems. He had a ski mask and gloves on in order to minimize the chances of being apprehended. So far the script was being followed to the letter. Just as he had planned, he goes straight to the security tape and disables them so that his operation would not be recorded. After this he goes straight for the cash box. There he uses a crow bar, to open the pad lock on the cash box placed in the filing cabinet inside the managers room.  From the cash box he takes  3,700 in bills and puts it in his pocket. According to the script, he decides to fool the investigators that the robber didnt know where the cash was and therefore creates some mess in the shop. This was to remove suspicion from the workers of the shop, him included.
His next action was to go for the electronics. He collects about three laptops, and three Iphones and seven digital cameras. Everything had gone according to the script so far and on leaving he makes some hammer marks on the backdoor to fool the investigators that the robber had used a hammer to break into the shop through the backdoor.

Situational crime prevention involves reducing the opportunities of criminals to commit crime. According to Clarke (1997), this is done by making the crime look less beneficial, riskier and more difficult to carry out. It also involves making the offender see very slim chances of getting away with the crime, thereby making it less appealing.

Looking at this case of robbery, some factors contributed to the subject and made the heist look appealing and easy to carry out. The fact that the subject had the opportunity to locate the valuables that he wanted to steal and the opportunity to rig the backdoor giving him an easy access to the shop after closing time made it look very easy to him. He also was motivated by the knowledge that his employer had not taken the money to the bank on the day of the robbery and was therefore almost sure that the amount in the cashbox was substantial (Clarke, 1997). 

In this case, there are many things that would have been done in order to prevent the robbery. These are

Making the building safer. The building should have been fitted with alarms to detect unauthorized entry. The alarms could be set to sound and alarm or to notify the police whenever an unauthorized person enters the shop.

Ensuring secure closure. The shop owner should have personally checked to see that the locks on all the doors were properly closed. This would have presented the subject with a problem of entering the shop and would have acted as a deterrent factor. This would have made the robbery look more difficult and less appealing.

Cash deposit. The shop owner should have made arrangements with the bank of a security firm to deposit the cash on Saturday. The idea of finding liquid cash is very tempting to many criminals. If the subject knew that the cash in the cash box was too little to help in the paying of the loan shark, he wouldnt have been too enthusiastic planning and carrying out the operation.

Although security cameras had been installed in the shop, the recorder was left unsecured. The subject knew this and had no problem disabling the tape. Should the recorder been secured in a safe or locked away in another location, the subject would have feared being identified later from the tape (Clarke, 1980).