PATAMO FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ROUTINE ACTIVITY THEORY AND THE PREVENTION OF VIOLENT CRIMES

Abstract

The study aims to analyze, in the light of the Theory of Routine Activity proposed by Cohen and Felson (1979), how the employment of the PATAMO troop of the Shock Policing Battalion of the Military Police of the Federal District can contribute to the prevention of crimes of greater social relevance, the so-called Intentional Lethal Violent Crimes (CVLI). Therefore, the work was conducted in a quantitative perspective. 807 Service Orders from the PMDF's Genesis System were analyzed in order to verify which was the area and hours of employment of PATAMO. Concomitantly, it was evaluated, through the Integrated Geostatistics System (SIGEO) of the Secretariat of Public Security of the Federal District, which were the places and times of occurrence of the 133 CVLI that occurred in the same period. Subsequently, an overlap was made between the PATAMO employment area and the CVLI occurrence area. Results showed that in 98.5% of the times when PATAMO was used, no type of CVLI occurred. With the available data, it was possible to perform a Spearman correlation analysis between the use of PATAMO and the occurrence of CVLI. The strategy for using and operating PATAMO as a specialized troop dedicated to crimes of greater violence demonstrates compliance with internal regulations. The index found was 0.87. Thus, as the CVLI vary positively in a city, PATAMO is used. The study indicates that, from the perspective of the Theory of Routine Activity, the use of PATAMO contributes to criminal prevention, particularly to prevent crimes of intentional homicide, which include feminicide, bodily injury followed by death and robbery, while it generates modification in the probabilities of interaction in space-time between the elements of the crime: motivated individual, suitable target and absence of a guardian.