The law means that for there to be a crime there must be a violation of the law, otherwise it is not illegal, therefore it is not a crime . An offender means there must be someone who broke the law without someone breaking the law there is no crime. Victim or target means there must be a victim for there to be a crime when there is a victimless crime it is based on a larger scale and the entire state or community is the victim. Venue means the place where an act contrary to the law which would constitute a crime took place. The four elements of crime are addressed in environmental criminology. Environmental criminology focuses on the study of the discipline of criminology, the relationships between individual environments in which crimes occur, and how they influence criminal activity. Environmental criminologists focus on the fourth element of "place" of crime, this field developed in the 1980s. Some of the things that ecologists focus on are the elements present in place not geographic location . They look for data on the time and location where the crime took place, which helps police and law enforcement better understand the crime.