They choose what they consider safe places to commit crimes and buy and sell drugs".
Routine Activities theory teaches us of a simple and powerful tool, which helps us in understanding the causes of crime problems. It states that for any crime to occur three things must be present. First there needs to be a suitable target, second the absence of a capable guardian and third the presence of a motivated offender (Siegel, 2006). This can be clearly seen in Tsotsi. Gumboot Dhlamini was the suitable target in which Tsotsi, also known as David, the motivated offender had chosen. According to Fugard, (2006), Gumboot made three mistakes. The first was the fact that he had smiled. A smile, which was as white as light, made him noticeable by Tsotsi (Fugard, 2006). His second mistake was the tie in which he had purchased, flaming red with bolts of silver lightning. Being as bright red in colour as it was, it made him an easy target for Tsotsi to follow, even at a distance (Fugard, 2006) and his third mistake was the fact that he paid for his train ticket with money out of his pay packet. As portrayed by Hood (2005), Tsotsi had seen Gumboot's pay packet. Those three errors, unfortunately, made him out to be the most suitable target within the train station.
Siegel (2006) explained motivated offenders to be a large group of unemployed teenagers. As much as we were not privy to the age group of David and his gang, one thing we can predict is that they were unemployed. David being the leader of the gang made most of the decisions. It was a Friday night, and his instructions were clear; they were targeting someone on the train (Fugard, 2006). David believed this was his way of life because he was none the wiser, and life had not taught him any better (Fugard, 2006); therefore he saw nothing in ending a man's life for the sake of survival.
Regardless of the fact that thousands of people can be seen at the train station, never once did we see any police patrols, security guards, vigilant staff and co-workers or any close circuit television systems (CCTV), therefore, the absence of a capable guardian was in plain awareness for David and his gang.