Rational Choice Theory
•Derek, Cornish, and Clarke
•Rational choice leads to a preference to control crime not through state criminal sanctions but
through more informal situational crime prevention
Rational Choice Theory: Rational Choice and Crime
•Criminal motivations are important for giving people a taste for crime, or in increasing the probability
that crime will be subjectively available to people
Helps with motivations for committing crime as crime involves concrete choises.
•However, crime also involves a concrete choice, or a sequence of choices, that must be made if
these motivations are to result in an actual criminal act
Rational Choice Theory: Rational Choice and Crime
•Take seriously how offenders think so as to predict when criminal events will occur
–How can we use this knowledge to better predict when criminal events will occur?
•Decisions that offenders make are purposive
–Their decisions are based in bounded rationality
Rational Choice Theory: Policy Implications
•Every act of crime involves some choice by the offender, and so they can be held responsible for that
choice and punished
•Scare people straight with severe punishments
The rational mind would say its not worth it because the punishments are too punal
•Situational crime prevention: By studying how offenders make decisions, steps may be taken to
reduce such opportunities for these offenses to occur
•The danger in rational choice theory, however, is that offenders will be treated as though they were
only decision makers
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
•The core of this theory is offenders are rational - but making a decision is a complex process
•Offenders may make a series of choices about whether to offend, which targets to victimize, how to
complete the crime effectively, and how to avoid detection
–However, decisions are not independent; rather, they are shaped by other forces
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
•Use of term “rational”. Is it scientific?
–Failure to provide clear criteria that can assess whether or not choices made by offenders are
rational
–Becomes ideological, rather than theoretical, conviction
•Rational choice theory is under reconsideration from “behavioral economics,” which merges the
insights of economics with those of social psychology
–Choices involve not merely incentives, but also social psychological processes
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
•People’s decisions are biased by the methods or shortcuts they employ when making choices
–Rules of thumb or decision strategies (“heuristics”)
•Biases a core reason why harsh penalties that seek to increase the costs of crime are of limited
effectiveness
•Impact of behavioral economics
•decision-making is shaped by complex processes. Cannot be reduced to classical view that
judgments about utility--costs and benefits--rule human choice
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
•Emotion is a factor that adds to complexity of decision-making
•Hard to test emotion because of self-report surveys
•Emotions shape decision-making in three ways:
1.Negative emotions can serve as costs that make the choice of crime less likely
2.Positive emotions about crime can serve as a benefit
3.Emotional states can change the context of crime
•Emotions can affect actions before a conscious decision can be made
•Derek, Cornish, and Clarke
•Rational choice leads to a preference to control crime not through state criminal sanctions but
through more informal situational crime prevention
Rational Choice Theory: Rational Choice and Crime
•Criminal motivations are important for giving people a taste for crime, or in increasing the probability
that crime will be subjectively available to people
Helps with motivations for committing crime as crime involves concrete choises.
•However, crime also involves a concrete choice, or a sequence of choices, that must be made if
these motivations are to result in an actual criminal act
Rational Choice Theory: Rational Choice and Crime
•Take seriously how offenders think so as to predict when criminal events will occur
–How can we use this knowledge to better predict when criminal events will occur?
•Decisions that offenders make are purposive
–Their decisions are based in bounded rationality
Rational Choice Theory: Policy Implications
•Every act of crime involves some choice by the offender, and so they can be held responsible for that
choice and punished
•Scare people straight with severe punishments
The rational mind would say its not worth it because the punishments are too punal
•Situational crime prevention: By studying how offenders make decisions, steps may be taken to
reduce such opportunities for these offenses to occur
•The danger in rational choice theory, however, is that offenders will be treated as though they were
only decision makers
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
•The core of this theory is offenders are rational - but making a decision is a complex process
•Offenders may make a series of choices about whether to offend, which targets to victimize, how to
complete the crime effectively, and how to avoid detection
–However, decisions are not independent; rather, they are shaped by other forces
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
•Use of term “rational”. Is it scientific?
–Failure to provide clear criteria that can assess whether or not choices made by offenders are
rational
–Becomes ideological, rather than theoretical, conviction
•Rational choice theory is under reconsideration from “behavioral economics,” which merges the
insights of economics with those of social psychology
–Choices involve not merely incentives, but also social psychological processes
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
•People’s decisions are biased by the methods or shortcuts they employ when making choices
–Rules of thumb or decision strategies (“heuristics”)
•Biases a core reason why harsh penalties that seek to increase the costs of crime are of limited
effectiveness
•Impact of behavioral economics
•decision-making is shaped by complex processes. Cannot be reduced to classical view that
judgments about utility--costs and benefits--rule human choice
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
•Emotion is a factor that adds to complexity of decision-making
•Hard to test emotion because of self-report surveys
•Emotions shape decision-making in three ways:
1.Negative emotions can serve as costs that make the choice of crime less likely
2.Positive emotions about crime can serve as a benefit
3.Emotional states can change the context of crime
•Emotions can affect actions before a conscious decision can be made
