Essay On Rational Choice Theory

“According to classical theory, individuals choose to engage in crime based on a rational consideration of the costs and benefits associated with crime.”(Part XI, page 417). Rational choice theories explain that all actions are the result of individual choice. Rational choice theories also clarify that people choose their own behavior and should be held responsible for making those choices, as well as for the consequences of their choices. Therefore, the theory explains that the criminal justice system needs to figure out the reasons people choose to commit crimes, so that measure can be taken to encourage them to make different choices.
Rational Choice Theory attempts to provide proof that offenders make a rational choice to commit crime by measuring all possibilities and outcomes instead of influence as many other theories explained. According to the RCT, Offenders are usually searching for advantages from their antisocial behavior. Rational Choice Theory also adopts that regardless acknowledged the possibility of going to prison offenders have consciously
made the decision to commit the crime. Rational choice theory does not take agree with the idea that offenders simply commit crime because they believe they won’t get caught. One example, which can be used by RCT, is a White collar crime; the individual calculates all the possibilities and decides to draw off money from their company account for their personal need. Another example can be street crime: a criminal who robs someone while walking down at night in the neighborhood, believing he is more likely to successes and get away with it than if it were daylight; an example to put in consideration. “Opportunity of a crime can be related to cost benefits, socioeconomic status, risk of detection, dependent on situational context, type of offence and access to external benefits. In addition, opportunities are dependent on the individual’s current surroundings and consequential factors.”(wikipedia.org)
“Environmental criminology has always been interested with the prevention of crime, yet crime prevention has been difficult to define.”(Environmental Criminology and Crime Prevention, Jessica Paris, page1, pdf.) “Environmental criminology” (developed by criminologists Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson) visualizes crime as the result of the paths people choose in a daily bases.
Environmental criminology focuses on crime and the opportunities provided for crime to happen. Hypothetically, the research explains that even though there are criminal, crimes won’t be able to commit if they can’t find an opening to operate there will be no crime. “Most of all, we must understand the difference between geographic profiling and environmental criminology, and we must be familiar with the proactive nature of Intelligence Led Policing.” (Environmental Criminology and Crime Prevention, Chapter1, page2, Jessica Paris,
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Routine Activity Theory is one of the main theories of "environmental criminology". According to “Routine Activity Theory,” doing a crime there are three things that show up, a motivated offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a guardian to prevent the crime from happening. As an example, a young man/woman who lives and works in a blighted area and doesn’t have a car, he/she has no other choice but to walk home at night after work; this situation will provide any criminal the opportunity needed to operate for an available and suitable target is present with no guardian. “Routine Activity Theory” provides a simple and powerful insight into the causes of crime problems. “At its heart is the idea that in the absence of effective controls, offenders will prey upon attractive targets.”( popcenter.org, A Theory of Crime Problems.)