Chapter Four

1
Chapter Four

• The Development of Rational Choice Theory

2
Rational Decision Making

• Criminals plan activities, buy equipment, try to
  avoid detection, and attempt to put profits in a
  hidden bank account.
• Because of these calculated actions, many
  criminologists suggest that the source of all
  criminal violations rests upon rational decision
  making.

3
History of Rational Choice Theory

• Beccaria (utilitarian philosophers) suggest
• 1. people choose all behavior
• 2. their choices are designed to bring them
  leisure and reduce pain
• 3. criminal choices can be controlled by fear of
  punishment
• 4. the more severe, certain and swift the
  punishment, the greater its ability to control
  criminal behavior.

4
History of Rational Choice Theory

• Beccaria believed in order to deter people from
  committing more serious offenses, crime and
  punishment must be proportional or people might
  commit more serious crimes.
• This is the concept known as marginal
  deterrenceif petty offenses were subject to the
  same punishment as more serious crimes, offenders
  would choose the worse crime because the
  resulting punishment would be about the same.
• In contrast, choosing not to commit crime is
  dependent on the belief that risks outweigh
  rewards.

5
Classical Theory of Crime

• Bentham, a British philosopher and utilitarian,
  said that people choose actions on the basis of
  whether they produce pleasure and happiness and
  help them avoid pain or unhappiness.

6
Classical Theory of Crime

• Punishment has four main objectives
• 1. to prevent all criminal offenses,
• 2. when it cannot prevent a crime, to convince
  the offender to commit a less serious crime,
• 3. to ensure that a criminal uses no more force
  than is necessary, and
• 4. to prevent crime as cheaply as possible.

7
Contemporary Choice Theory

• After a period of decline, the classical approach
  to crime began in the mid-1970s.
• Rehabilitation of criminals came under attack.
• The new theme was that criminals are rational
  actors who plan crimes, fear punishment and
  deserve to be penalized for their crimes.

8
James Q. Wilson and Contemporary Theory

• James Q. Wilson discounted the positivist view
  that crime was a function of external forces,
  such as poverty, that could be altered by
  government programs.
• Wilson said that efforts should be made to reduce
  criminal opportunity by deterring would-be
  offenders and incarcerating known criminals.

9
James Q. Wilson and Contemporary Theory

• Wilson believed that people who are likely to
  commit crime lack inhibition against misconduct,
  value the excitement of breaking the law, have a
  low stake in conformity and are willing to take
  greater chances than most persons.
• Wilson said that if these people could be
  convinced that their actions would meet with
  severe punishment, only the totally irrational
  would commit crimes.

10
James Q. Wilson and Contemporary Theory

• Classical theory has evolved into a theory based
  on intelligent thought processes and criminal
  decision-making.
• The decision to commit crime is shaped by human
  emotions as well as thoughts
• Other influences have an impact including social
  relationships, individual traits and capabilities
  and environmental characteristics.
• The new version of ration choice theory holds
  that human behavior is willful and determined.

11
Concepts of Rational Choice

• Law-violating behavior occurs when an offender
  decides to risk breaking the law after
  considering both personal and situational
  factors.
• Reasoning criminals carefully select targets and
  their behavior is systematic and selective.

12
CrimeBoth Offense- and Offender-Specific

• Offense-specificoffenders will react selectively
  to the characteristics of an individual criminal
  act.
• Offender-specificcriminals make decisions about
  whether they have the abilities (skills, need,
  alternatives, resources, physical prowess) to
  commit a successful criminal act.
• There is a distinction between crime and
  criminalitycrime is an event criminality is a
  personal trait based on factors of economic
  opportunity, learning and experience, and
  knowledge of criminal techniques.

13
CrimeBoth Offense- and Offender-Specific

• Although not identical, rational choice theory
  and routine activities theory both claim crime
  rates are a normal product of criminal
  opportunity and agree that this is a key element
  in the criminal process.

14
Structuring Crime

• Criminal decision making is based on an
  assessment of personal needs and capabilities as
  well as an assessment of the criminal event.
• Decisions must include what (opportunity), where
  (usually familiar territory), when (night time is
  still preferable) and whom (the most vulnerable)
  to target.

15
Structuring Crime

• Targets are sometimes chosen in order to send a
  message rather than to generate capital.
• Example drug dealers respond to three types of
  violations
• Market-related (partners in trade, rivals, etc.)
• Status-based (character has been challenged)
• Personalistic (autonomy or justice are
  jeopardized)

16
Rational Theft?

• Common theft-related crimes seem to be random
  acts of criminal opportunity, however, these acts
  may be carefully assessed for risks i.e.,
  professional shoplifters (boosters) use complex
  methods in order to avoid being caught.
• Burglars certainly appear to make rational
  choice, especially in planning. They prefer to
  commit crimes in permeable neighborhoods (those
  with greater than usual number of access streets
  from traffic arteries into the neighborhood.

17
Rational Drug Use?

• Research shows that drug use is controlled by
  rational decision making.
• Users report that they begin taking drugs when
  they believe that the benefits of substance abuse
  outweigh its costs.
• Drug deals are not spontaneous acts motivated by
  rage, mental illness or economic desperation, but
  rational business enterprise engaged in by highly
  motivated players.

18
Rational Violence?

• Some crime experts believe violence is a matter
  of choice and serves specific goals
• Control
• Retribution
• Deterrence
• Reputation

19
Rational Robbery?

• Street robbers are likely to choose victims who
  are vulnerable and pose no threat.
• About 3/5s of all violent felons in one study,
  were more afraid of armed victims than of police.
• About 2/5s avoided a victim because they believed
  to be armed
• Almost 1/3 indicated they had been scared off,
  wounded or captured by armed victims.

20
Rational Killing?

• The conscious motive is typically revenge for a
  prior dispute or disagreement among the parties
  involved or their families.
• Although some killings are motivated by anger and
  aggression, others are the result of rational
  planning.
• Even serial murderers tend to pick their targets
  with care.

21
Rational Sex Criminals?

• It appears that sex crimes are highly irrational,
  motivated by hate, lust, revengeemotions that
  defy rational planning.
• However, sex criminals report using ration
  thought and planning when carrying their crimes.

22
Rational Airplane Hijackers?

• People who hijack airplanes are rarely considered
  rational. However, even hijackers may be
  rational decision makers.
• The threat of apprehension and severe punishment
  deter many individuals from this crime.

23
Eliminating Crime

• Some people cannot resist the allure of crime,
  often describing the adrenaline rush that comes
  from successfully executing illegal activities in
  dangerous situations (known as edgework).
• So, how can it be controlled or eliminated?

24
Eliminating Crime

• Potential offenders must be convinced that
• Crime is a poor choice that will lead to hardship
  and deprivation, not rewards.
• Crime is not worth the effort it is hard work.
• Crime brings pain not easily forgotten.

25
Situational Crime Prevention

• Crime prevention can be achieved by reducing
  opportunities people have to commit particular
  crimes.
• Situational crime prevention began in the 1970s
  in the U.S.
• Key to this concept is defensible
  spacesignifying crime can be prevented or
  displaced through the use of residential
  architectural designs that reduce criminal
  opportunity (i.e., well-lit housing projects that
  maximize surveillance.

26
Situational Crime Prevention

• Situational crime prevention can also involve
  developing tactics to reduce or eliminate a
  specific crime problem.
• These efforts can be divided into five
  strategies
• Increase the effort needed to commit crime
• Increase the risks of committing crime
• Reduce the rewards for committing crime
• Reduce provocation /induce guilt or shame for
  committing crime
• Reduce excuses for committing crime

27
Situational Crime Prevention

• To manage crimes, there must be crime
  discouragers
• Guardiansmonitor targets
• Handlersmonitor potential offenders
• Managersmonitor places

28
Reducing Crime Through Surveillance

• Americans are not accepting of implications from
  this surveillance technology.
• Often this presents challenges to the U.S.
  Constitutions Fourth Amendment prohibition
  against unreasonable searches and seizures.

29
Situational Crime Prevention Benefits

• Diffusionin preventing one crime, another may be
  prevented as well.
• Discouragementcrime control efforts targeting a
  certain locale may help reduce crime in
  surrounding areas and populations.

30
Situational Crime Prevention Costs

• Displacementcrime is not prevented but deflected
  or displaced to other targets.
• Extinctioncrime reduction programs may produce
  short-term success, but benefits dissipate as
  criminal adjust to new conditions.
• Encouragementreduction programs increase rather
  than decrease the potential for crime.

31
General Deterrence

• This theory holds that crime rates are influenced
  and controlled by the threat and/or application
  of criminal punishment.
• If people fear being apprehended and punished,
  they will not risk breaking the law.
• Severity, certainty and speed of punishment may
  also influence one another.
• However, the certainty of punishment seems to
  have a greater impact than its severity or speed.

32
General Deterrence

• Not only does the actual chance of punishment
  influence criminality, so too does the perception
  of punishment.
• People who perceive they will be punished for
  crimes will avoid doing those crimes.
• If the probability of arrest, conviction and
  sanctioning increase, crime rates should decline.

33
Tipping Point/Crackdowns

• If the certainty of punishment could be increased
  to critical level (tipping point), then the
  deterrent effect would prevail and crime rates
  decline.
• Local law enforcement agencies have responded
  with crackdownssudden changes in police activity
  designed to increase the communicated threat or
  actual certainty of punishment.

34
Punishment and Deterrence

• Severityan increase in severity of punishment
  does not always decrease the crime rate.
• Morality, shame and humiliation is important in
  deterrence if a person has a sense of moral
  beliefs or would not want to disappoint others,
  i.e., family/friends.

35
Punishment and Deterrence

• Speed (celerity) of punishment and deterrencethe
  faster the punishment is applied, the more
  closely it is linked to the crime, therefore, the
  more likely it will serve as a deterrent.

36
Analysis of General Deterrence

• Why apprehension and punishment fails to deter
  crime
• Assumption of rationality of a criminal
• Compulsive behavior of many criminals
• Need (underclass most often commit crimes)
• Greed
• Misperceptionsome persons easier to deter

37
Capital Punishment as a Murder Deterrent

• There are three types of research on the death
  penalty and murder
• Immediate impact studiesexecutions should deter
  murders but they do not.
• Comparative researchjurisdictions that have
  capital punishment compared with those that
  dont no reduction in homicide rate where death
  penalty is imposed.
• Time-series analysisno association between the
  frequency of execution and the murder rate from
  1984 to 1997 and 1974 to 2001 studies.

38
Specific Deterrence

• Criminal sanctions should be so powerful that
  known criminals will never repeat their criminal
  acts.
• However, offenders sentenced to prison dont have
  lower rates of recidivism than those with more
  lenient community sentences for similar crimes.

39
Specific Deterrence

• Perhaps, punishment may bring defiance rather
  than deterrence
• Also, perhaps the stigma of harsh treatment
  labels people and locks offenders into a criminal
  career instead of avoiding one.
• Criminals who are punished may also believe that
  getting caught twice for the same type of crime
  is remote.

40
Domestic Violence Studies

• Arrest and conviction may lower the frequency of
  reoffendingsupporting specific deterrence.
• However, some studies have found that batterers
  were not phased by arrest, prosecution,
  probation, incarceration or treatment.

41
Incapacitation

• Incapacitation effectif locked up for long
  periods of time, the opportunity for these
  offenders to commit crime is reduced and the
  crime rate is lowered.
• However, it may be that crime rates are lower
  because potential criminals now fear punishment
  and are deterred from crimean effect of general
  deterrence.

42
Three Strikes Laws

• Many believe these dont work because
• Most three time losers are on the verge of aging
  out of crime.
• Violent crime sentences are already severe.
• More prisoners will increase the already high
  price of prisons
• Racial disparity in sentencing could occur.
• Danger for police as two time offenders might
  violently resist a third arrest
• Prisons already may contain the highest frequency
  criminals.

43
Public Policy Implications of Choice Theory

• The concept of criminal choice has created
  justice policies known as just desert.
• This concept is concerned with the rights of the
  accusedthe offender should not be treated as
  more, or less, blameworthy than is warranted by
  the nature of the offense.

44
Public Policy Implications of Choice Theory

• Blameworthiness is based on the level of harm
  caused by the crime and the degree of fault in
  commission of the crime.
• Fault is measured by
• Offenders intent
• Offenders capacity to obey the law
• Offenders motives for committing the crime
• Defendants role in the offense

45
Public Policy Implications of Choice Theory

• The just desert model holds that retribution
  justifies punishment because people deserve what
  they get for past deeds.
• This models influence is seen in sentencing
  models that give the same punishment to all
  offenders committing the same type of crime.