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Criminology Chapter 4 Rational Choice Theory
Intro to Criminology (CRLS1001)
Marquette University
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Criminology Chapter 4 Rational Choice Theory
Wymer Case: The decision to commit crimes involves rational actions and planned decision making, designed to maximize profits and avoid detection - Most crimes involve thoughtful planning and not spontaneous decisions - They’re well thought out to maximize self-profit gain and avoid capture and punishment
Rational Choice Theory: The view that crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the potential weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act - Planning and careful thought - Assumes that people are self-interested and will be willing to violate the law after considering personal factors such as: o Money, revenge, thrills, and entertainment - Considering situational factors such as o Target availability, security measures, and police presence
Crimes that involve rational decision making include - Drug abuse - Vandalism - Violence
Crimes are committed after weighing out potential benefits and consequences and deciding that the benefits of the crime are better than the consequences - Motivation is caused by traits such as o Greed o Revenge o Need o Anger o Lust o Jealousy o Thrill seeking o Vanity - Criminals put their own needs ahead of the rest of us
James Q Wilson: People who are likely to commit crime are unafraid of breaking the law because they value the excitement and thrills of crime, have a low stake in conformity, and are willing to take greater chances than the average person - If convinced that their actions would bring severe punishment, only the totally irrational would be willing to engage in crime
Rational choice theory is a more contemporary version of Classical Theory
Burglars choose victims based on their target’s value
- The decision to commit crime is enhanced by the promise of easy gain and low risk
- The decision to forgo crime is reached when the potential criminal believes that the risks outweigh the reward o They stand a good chance of getting caught and being punished o They fear the consequences of punishment o They risk losing the respect of their peers, damaged reputations, and feelings of guilt or shame o The risk of apprehension outweighs the profit and or pleasure of crime
Offense specific/ Offender specific
Offense specific: The view that an offender reacts selectively to the characteristics of a particular criminal act - Target yield evaluation - Probability of security devices - Police patrol effectiveness - Likelihood of apprehension - Ease of selling merchandise - Presents of occupants - Neighbors - Who might notice a break in - Presence of guard dogs - Escape routes - Entry points and exits
Offender specific: The view that offenders evaluate their skills, motives, needs, and fears before deciding to commit the criminal act - Necessary skills so commit crime - Immediate need for money or other valuables - Availability of legitimate financial alternatives to crime - Available resources to commit crime - Fear of expected apprehension and punishment - Availability of alternative criminal acts such as selling drugs - Physical ability, including health, strength, and dexterity Distinction between crime and criminality - Crime is an event - Criminality is a personal trait
Criminals do not commit crimes all the time - Even the most honest citizens violate the law - Some high-risk people lacking opportunity may never commit a crime - Given provocation or opportunity, a low-risk, law-abiding person may commit crime Factors of committing crime? - Structure criminality
Structuring crime The decision to commit crime regardless of its substance is structured by where it occurs and the characteristics of the target - Choosing place of the crime o Criminals choose targets in familiar places where they know their way around and won’t get lost or trapped o Criminals not only commit crimes near their homes but also in the residential areas of their family members, parents, siblings, and their own children - Choosing targets o Targets that decline in value due to oversupply or obsolescence are avoided o Metal and wire are converted when value skyrockets o Robbers look for places with more cash on hand, why choose a place that only takes credit cards o Neighborhoods with medical marijuana dispensaries are in high risk of armed robberies Inability to access banks o Auto thieves choose German cars because of their high-quality parts o Well organized communities that restrict traffic and limit neighborhood entrance and exit routes have experienced significant declines in property crime - Getting away o Lay out escape routes o Having an exit strategy is just as important as planning the crime o Car thieves rely of normalcy illusions: Designed to prevent authorities from becoming aware that thieves are driving stolen vehicles o Police generally do not suspect women of being auto thieves Violence rationality - Robbers choose people that are close to their home - Market related robberies: Involve partners in trade, rivals or generalized pretadors - Status-based violations: Involve encounters in which robbers’ essential character or values have been challenged - Personalistic violations: Incidents in with the robber’s autonomy or sense of values have been jeopardized Hate crime rationality
Sex crime rationality - Johns: Men who solicit sex workers
Analyzing rational choice theory - Crime is not a random event, but the product of calculation and planning designed to provide the would be-criminal with an overall benefit
Situational crime prevention
- Criminals are ready and will pounce if there are valuable items, can be taken easily because victims do not take adequate precautions
- Situational crime prevention: A method of crime prevention that seeks to eliminate or reduce particular crimes in specific settings
- Defensible space: The principle that crime can be prevented or displaced by modifying the physical environment to reduce the opportunity that individuals have to commit crime
- CRAVED model: Identifies the factors that make theft-related crimes attractive to potential thieves so that steps can be taken to thwart their criminal ambitions
Crime prevention strategies - Increase the effort needed to commit crime o Unbreakable glass o Locking gates o Fencing yards - Increase the risk of committing crime o Crime discourages: People who serve as guardians of property or people Can be grouped into three categories Guardians: Who monitor potential targets (police and storefront guards) Handlers: Who monitor potential offenders (Parole officers and parents) Managers: Who monitor places (Homeowners and garage attendants If all three are utilized correctly then the criminal will believe that the crime is not worth it - Reduce the rewards of crime o Jewelry stores put fake diamond rings on display in store fronts o Alarms o Bikes has identification markers - Induce guilt: Increase shame o Sex offenders having to go door to door saying they’re a sex offender - Reduce provocation o Raising price of beer and wine due to increase in crime related to alcohol o Closing time for bars - Remove excuses o Flashing signs showing how fast you are going
Evaluating situational crime prevention - Hidden benefits o Diffusion : An effect that occurs when efforts to prevent one crime unintentionally prevents another Cameras in malls reduce theft and also property damage
o Would be achieved if creating a steep fine for going 20 miles per house over the speed limit resulted in the average motorist exceeding the speed limit by only 10 miles per hour Thus people still speed but not as much o Contains 4 separate but interrelated concepts The offender reduces the number of crimes she or he commits over a particular period of time The offender commits crimes of lesser seriousness than the contemplated act, believing that punishment won’t be as severe for a more minor infraction The offender engages in situational measures to enhance the probability that the contemplated offense will be undertaken without risk of detection The offender recognizes a risky situational context which causes him or her to commit the same crime at a different place or time Punishment and deterrence
- If the certainty, severity or speed of arrest, conviction and sanctioning increase, crime rates should decline o Crime will still persist however if people believe they will get away with crime and even if they are caught, they will have a good chance of escaping punishment.
- Certainty of punishment o Direct relationship between crime rates and the certainty of punishment People who believe they will get caught for committing a crime will be the ones that are likely to be deterred from committing a crime o Certainty increases when local police officers are active, aggressive, crime fighters, convincing would-be criminals that the risk of apprehension overweighs any benefit they can gain from a crime o There is a positive likelihood of getting arrested and crime rate levels The higher the arrest rate the lower the subsequent crime rate o Proactive aggressive law enforcement seems to be more effective than routine patrol o Improving response time and increasing the number of patrol cars that respond per crime may increase police efficiency and deter people from committing crimes o There is still a debate whether increasing local police force can actually reduce crime rates Jurisdictions that increased the visibility of the police, hired more officers, and used patrol officers in ways that increased the perceived risk of apprehension did enjoy deterrent effects and lower crime rates
- Severity of punishment o People who believed that they will be punished severely for a crime will forgo committing criminal acts
o There is little consensus that strict punishments alone can reduce criminal activities and most criminologists believe that the certainty of punishment rather than its severity is the key to deterring criminal behaviors o Skepticism: Failure of the death penalty to deter murder
- Swiftness of punishment o Court delays o Delays between apprehension and punishment
According to deterrence theory the death penalty is the ultimate deterrent and should deter criminals from committing murder which is the ultimate crime - Immediate impact: If capital punishment is a deterrent, the reasoning goes then its impact to be the greatest after a well-publicized execution o Most research has failed to find evidence of an execution that has caused a decline in murder Even highly publicized execution have little impact on murder rates - Comparative research: Comparing murder rates in jurisdictions that have abolished the death penalty o Studies using this approach have found little difference between the murder rates of adjacent states, regardless of their use of the death penalty: Death penalty did not appear to affect the reported rates of homicide - Time-series studies: if capital punishment is a deterrent then periods have an upswing in executions should also experience a downturn in violent crime and murder o Most research efforts have failed to show such relationship: Economic conditions, population density, and incarceration rates have a much greater impact on the murder rate than does the death penalty - Many on death row eventually cancel their appeals because they believe that the death penalty is fair
Evaluating general deterrence - The purpose of the law and justice system is to create a threat system o Though crime rates and detterent measures are much less closely related than choice theorists might expect. - Rationality o Rational theory - Compulsion o Difficult to control some feelings which concludes committing crime - System effectiveness o The threat of punishment involves not only its severity but its certainty and speed o About half of all crimes are reported to the police and police make arrests in only about 20 percent of reported crimes - Criminals discount punishments o Would-be criminals are not well informed about the actual risks of sanctions
offenders weigh information on their personal needs and the situational factors involved in the difficulty and risk of committing crime
constantly engage in crime. Relates theory to crime control policy. It is not limited by class or other social variables
how crime takes place
General deterrence People will commit crime if they perceive that the benefits outweigh the severity, certainty, and speed of punishment
Shows the relationship between crime and punishment. Suggests real solution to crime
Perception of punishment, effect of legal sanctions, probability of punishment and crime rates
Specific deterrence If punishment is severe enough, criminals will not repeat their illegal acts
Provides a strategy to reduce crime
Recidivism, repeat offending, punishment type and crime
Incapacitation Keeping known criminals out of circulation will reduce crime rates
Recognizes the role that opportunity plays in criminal behavior. Provides a solution to chronic offending
Prison population and crime rates, sentence length, and crime
Crackdowns: The concentration of police resources on particular problem areas, such as street- level drug dealing, to eradicate or displace criminal activity
Stop question and frisk policy (SQF): Highly controversial, able to stop and frisk people who looked like they could be suspected of committing a crime in New York
Focused deterrence: The view that police can deter crime by using every strategy possible and also by directly interacting with other offenders and communicating clear consequences if they engage in criminal activities
Criminology Chapter 4 Rational Choice Theory
Course: Intro to Criminology (CRLS1001)
University: Marquette University
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