Matthew John Breck: Routine Activities Theory

Background September 10, 1998- Around 5pm: Anna Palmer called her mother, Nancy Palmer, to ask her if she could go play with some the neighbor’s kids. (Morgan, E., 2011; Anna...) Around 7pm: Anna Palmer and Loxane Konesavanh were walking to Palmer’s house. (Morgan, E., 2011; Anna…) Around 7:30pm: Nancy Palmer gets home and finds her daughter, Anna Palmer, lying on the front porch. (Morgan, E., 2011; Anna...) 2001- Matthew John Breck is convicted of child sodomy in Idaho. (The Associated Press, 2011) 2009- Detectives turned to Sorenson Forensics to investigate the little evidence they had took from the murder place. (Yi, S., 2011) 2010- Matthew John Breck is extradited to Utah from an Idaho prison after

This theory is based on three elements of why the crime occurs: “a motivated offender, suitable target, and lack of guardians” (Burkey, T., 2015). A motived offender is an offender that is committed and capable of committing the crime (Burkey, T., 2015) A suitable target “can be an object or person”, the offender may pick someone or something that is vulnerable and has some kind of award/ benefit towards the offender (Burkey, T., 2015). For example, a robber’s suitable target would be someone who has looks to be rich by what a person is wearing and that is probably coming out a bank because that would give the robber a hint that the person just took out money. Lack of capable of guardians is not having an adult who could stop the offender from committing the crime which can also go to suitable target because this can show vulnerability (Tewksbury, R.,

Anna Palmer was just an innocent little girl walking back home with her friend meaning had no way to defend herself from a guy who is double or triple her size which made her vulnerable to him. For Breck it would be easy to sexually assault her, kill her and leave because all Anna Palmer can really do was scream if he would let that happen. Not only was Anna Palmer unable to defend herself from Breck because of how small she was but also there was no one around to defend her. The lack of guardian was what made Anna Palmer more vulnerable to him. Her parents were clearly not around, no one was really on the streets even though it was a busy streets mainly at the time of the crime and there was not security around like police officers or an adults in general that could of stopped the crime from happening. A way this murder could have been prevented could have been if the parents would have paid more attention on not letting their daughter be alone in those few hours they are working and she is out of school. If only there was someone in charge of taking care of her in the time they are gone and could took her to her friends and brought he back. Anna Palmer would not have been an easy victim for Breck to