Chapter 4: Rational Choice Theory
Public policy implications of choice theory
- Police and Deterrence. - Courts, Sentencing, and Deterrence. - Three-Strikes Laws -- Require the state courts to hand down mandatory periods of incarceration of up to life in prison to persons who have been convicted of a serious criminal offense on three or more separate occasions. -- There is evidence that a stay in prison can reduce the length of a criminal career.
General deterrence (strategy)
A crime control policy that depends on the fear of criminal penalties convincing the potential law violator that the pains associated with crime outweigh its benefits. • The strategies are are aimed at making potential criminals fear the consequences of crime. The threat of punishment is meant to convince rational criminals that crime does not pay. • Operationalizations of these strategies are the death penalty, mandatory sentences, and aggressive policing. • Problems with these strategies are that criminals do not fear punishment and the certainty of arrest and punishment is low.
Structuring criminality
A number of personal factors condition people to choose crime: - Peers and guardianship. - Excitement and thrills. - Economic opportunity. - Learning and experience. - Knowledge of criminal techniques.
Human agency
A person's ability to intentionally make choices based on free will.
Focused deterrence
A policy that relies on pulling every deterrent "lever" available to reduce crime in the targeted problem.
The domestic violence studies
Arrest and conviction may, under some circumstances, lower or increase reoffending.
Informal sanctions
Disapproval, stigma, or anger directed toward an offender by significant others (parents, peers, neighbors, teachers), resulting in shame, embarrassment, and loss of respect.
Crime discouragers
Discouragers can be grouped into three categories: guardians, who monitor targets (such as store security guards); handlers, who monitor potential offenders (such as parole officers and parents); and managers, who monitor places (such as homeowners and doorway attendants).
Development of Classical Criminology
During the early Middle Ages (1200-1400s). - Superstition and fear of satanic possession dominate thinking.
Classical criminology
Eighteenth-century social thinkers believed that criminals choose to commit crime and that crime can be controlled by judicious punishment. People have free will - human agency. Crime promises a huge payoff. People make choices based upon perceived rewards and punishments. Punishments must be severe, certain, and swift to convince criminals that "crime does not pay". By the end of the nineteenth century, the popularity of _____ _____ declined. By the mid-twentieth century, positivistic views gained mainstream acceptance. - Poverty, IQ, education, home life believed to be true causes of criminality.
Market-related violations
Emerge from "professional" disputes over territory.
1. Immediate impact. 2. Comparative research. 3. Time-series studies. Sources: Jeffrey A. Fagan, "Capital Punishment: Deterrent Effects and Capital Costs," Columbia University School of Law, http://www.law.columbia.edu/law_school/communications/reports/summer06/capital punishment. Franklin Zimring, Jeffery Fagan, and David Johnson, "Executions, Deterrence and Homicide: A Tale of Two Cities," http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1436993. Meredith Martin Rountree, "'I'll Make Them Shoot Me': Accounts of Death Row Prisoners Advocating for Execution," 'Law and Society Review' 46 (2012): 589-622. David Baldus, Catherine Grosso, George Woodworth, and Richard Newell, "Racial Discrimination in the Administration of the Death Penalty: The Experience of the United States Armed Forces (1984-2005)," 'Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology' 101 (2011): 1227-1335. Cass R. Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule, "Is Capital Punishment Morally Required? Acts, Omissions, and Lifetime Tradeoffs," 'Standford Las Review' 58 (2006): 703-750, at 749; Tomislav Kovandzic, Lynne Vieraitis, and Denise Paquette Boots, "Does the Death Penalty Save Lives? New Evidence from the State Panel Data, 1977 to 2006," 'Criminology and Public Policy 8 (2009): 803-843. Jeffery Fagan, "Death and Deterrence Redux: Science, Law, and Causal Reasoning on Capital Punishment," 'Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law' 4 (2006): 255-320. Joanna Shepherd, "Deterrence versus Brutalization: Capital Punishment's Differing Impacts Among States," 'Michigan Law Review' 104 (2005): 203-253. John Donohue and Justin Wolfers, "Uses and Abuses of Empirical Evidence in the Death Penalty Debate," 'Stanford Law Review 58 (2005): 791-845. Geoffrey Rapp, "The Economics of Shootouts: Does the Passage of Capital Punishment Laws Protect it Endanger Police Officers?" 'Albany Law Review' 65 (2002): 1051-1084. URLs accessed April 2016.
Empirical research on the association between capital punishment and murder can be divided into what 3 types?
Eliminating crime
For many people, crime is attractive; brings rewards, excitement, or prestige without lengthy work or effort. If crime is rational, then it can be controlled or eradicated by convincing potential offenders that: - Crime is a poor choice that will not bring rewards but, instead, lead to hardship and deprivation. - Crime is not worth the effort. - Crime brings pain that is not easily forgotten.
Assigned level of responsibility (employees with specific assignment)
Guardians (Monitoring Suitable Targets): Store clerk monitors iPhones. Handlers (Monitoring Likely Offenders): Police officer sends kids back to school. Managers (Monitoring Amenable Places): Concierge protects building. (Crime Discouragers: Types of Supervisors and Objects of Supervision) Source: Adapted from 'Crime and Place', ed. John E. Eck and David Weisburd (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010).
Status-based violations
Involve violence that starts when someone challenges the robber's character or manhood.
• Crime is a poor choice that will not bring the rewards, but instead lead to hardship and deprivation. • Crime is not worth the effort. It is easier to work at a legitimate job than to evade police, outwit alarms, and avoid security. • Crime brings pain that is not easily forgotten. People who experience the pains of punishment will not readily commit more crimes.
It seems logical that if crime is rational and people choose to commit crime after weighing its rewards and benefits and factoring in their needs and abilities, then it can be controlled or eradicated by convincing potential offenders that...
1. The area around the target. 2. The target itself. Source: Bruce Jacobs and Michael Cherbonneau, "Managing Victim Confrontation: Auto Theft and Informal Sanction Threats," 'Justice Quarterly' 33 (2016): 21-44.
Jacobs and Cherbonneau found what 2 factors figured prominently in an auto-thieves decision making?
Choosing cirme
Law-violating behavior occurs when an offender decides to risk breaking the law after considering both personal factors and situational factors. Crime is an event; criminality is a personal trait.
Removable
Mobile items such as cars or bikes are desirable. A laptop makes a more appealing target than a desktop. Jewelry, cash, drugs, and the like are easy to carry and quite valuable on resale. Refrigerators may cost more, but you would need three people and a truck to remove them from a home.
Personalistic violations
Occur when the robber believes someone is acting like a punk and needs to be taught a lesson.
Classical theory
Origin: About 1764. Founders: Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham. Most Important Works: Beccaria, 'On Crimes and Punishments (1764); Bentham, 'Moral Calculus' (1789). Core Ideas: People choose to commit crime after weighing the benefits and costs of their actions. Crime can be deterred by certain, severe, and swift punishment. Modern Outgrowths: Rational choice theory, routine activities theory, general deterrence theory, specific deterrence, incapacitation.
The perception of punishment and deterrence
Perceptual deterrence: - Certainty. - Severity. - Speed.
Boosters
Professional shoplifters who steal with the intention of reselling stolen merchandise.
Analyzing general deterrence
Rationality, compulsion, need, and greed.
1. Have a moderate but significant desirable effect on crime. 2. Are most effective in reducing crime in car parks (parking lots) 3. Are most effective in reducing vehicle crimes. 4. Are more effective in reducing crime in the United Kingdom than in other countries. Source: Welsh, Farrington, and Taheri, "Effective-ness and Social Costs of Public Area Surveillance for Crime Prevention"; Brandon C. Welsh and David P. Farrington. 'Making Public Places Safer: Surveillance and Crime Prevention (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Research shows that CCTV interventions do what 4 things?
Is Drug Use Rational?
Research: At the onset, drug use is controlled by rational decision making. Entry into substance abuse is facilitated by their perception that valued friends and family members endorse and encourage drug use and abuse substances themselves.
1. Concealable. 2. Removable. 3. Available. 4. Valuable. 5. Enjoyable. 6. Disposable. Source: Gohar A. Petrossian and Ronald V. Clarke, "Explaining and Controlling Illegal Commercial Fishing, An Application of the CRAVED Theft Model," 'British Journal of Criminology' 54 (2014): 74-90; Ronald Clarke, Rick Kemper, and Laura Wyckoff, "Controlling Cell Phone Fraud in the U.S.," 'Security Journal' 14 (2001): 7-22.
Ronald Clarke formulated the CRAVED model of text, which suggests that the appropriation of property is most likely to occur when the target is...
Is theft rational?
Seems more likely to be random acts of criminal opportunity than well-thought-out conspiracies.
Extinction
Sometimes crime reduction programs may produce a short term positive fact, but benefits dissipate as criminals adjust to new conditions. Would-be criminals learn to dismantle alarms or avoid patrols; they may try new offenses they had previously avoided. And elimination of one crime encourage commission of another: if every residence in a neighborhood has a full-proof burglar alarm system, motivated offenders may be forced to turn to armed robbery, a riskier and more violent crime. A recent analysis of a program in Philadelphia that made use of the patrols to lower crime rates in areas with high violence rates found that while the program produced statistically significantly less violent crime at first, the deterrent effect began to quickly slow down and eventually become extinct. It is possible that at first offenders may have overestimated the risk of apprehension but as time went on began to realize their mistake and resumed illegal activities; positive results were relatively short-lived. Source: Evan Sorg, Cory Haberman, Jerry Ratcliffe, and Elizabeth Groff, "Foot Patrol in Violent Crime Hot Spots: The Longitudinal Impact of Deterrence and Posttreatment Effects of Displacement," 'Criminology' 51 (2013): 65-101.
• The drunk driver whose sentence is a substantial fine and a week in the county jail should be convinced that the price to be paid for drinking and driving is too great to consider future violations. • The burglar who spends five years in a tough maximum-security prison will find his enthusiasm for theft dampened. • The tax cheat who is assessed triple damages will think twice before filing a false return.
Specific deterrence relies on its application. Give examples.
• Evaluating the target yield. • Possibility of security devices. • Police patrol effectiveness. • Ease of escape. • Effort needed to dispose of stolen merchandise. • Presence of occupants. • Neighbors who might notice a break-in. • Presence of guard dogs. • Presence of escape routes. • Entry points and exits.
Take for instance the decision to commit a burglary. The thought process might include...
Targeting specific crimes
Targeting Specific Crimes Tactics to reduce a specific crime problem: Increase Efforts Reduce Opportunities Reduce Rewards Increase Risk Increase Shame Reduce Provocation Remove Excuses
During the Renaissance (1400-1600s)
The "social contract" emerges to explain human nature and behavior.
Deterrence
The attacker may want to stop someone from repeating acts that they consider hostile or provocative.
• The jealous suitor concludes at the risk of punishment is worth the satisfaction of punching a rival in the nose. • The greedy shopper considers the chance of apprehension by store detective so small that she takes a "five finger discount" on a new sweater. • The drug dealer concludes that the huge profit from a single shipment of cocaine far outweighs the possible cost of apprehension. • The schoolyard bully carefully selects his next victim—someone who is weak, unpopular, and probably won't fight back. • The college student downloads a program that allows her to illegally copy music onto her iPod.
The final decision to commit a crime is only made after the likely offender carefully weighs the potential benefits and consequences other their planned action and decides that the benefits of crime are greater than its consequences. Give examples.
Incapacitation effect
The idea that keeping offenders in confinement will eliminate the risk of their committing further offenses. • These strategies attempt to reduce crime rates by denying motivated offenders the opportunity to commit crime. If, despite the threat of law and punishment, some people still find crime attractive, then the only way to control their behavior is to incarcerate them for extended periods. • Operationalizations of these strategies are long prison sentences, placing more people behind bars. • A problem with these strategies is that people are kept in prison beyond the years they may commit crime. Minor, non-dangerous offenders are also locked up, and this is a very costly strategy.
Offender-specific crime
The idea that offenders evaluate their skills, motives, needs, and fears before deciding to commit crime. Individuals must decide if they have the prerequisites to commit a successful criminal act.
Offense-specific crime
The idea that offenders react selectively to the characteristics of particular crimes. Offenders will react selectively to the characteristics of an individual criminal act. If you were going to shoplift, what kind of characteristics of the criminal act would you consider?
Retribution
The perpetrator may want to punish someone without calling the police or using the justice system to address their grievances. The person takes the law into their own hands.
Perpetual deterrence
The theory that the perceived certainty, severity, and celerity of punishment are inversely related to the decisions by would-be offenders to commit crime, regardless of the actual likelihood of being apprehended and punished. People who believe they will be punished will be deterred even if the actual likelihood of punishment is insignificant.
Rational choice theory
The view that crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the potential offender weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act. _____ _____ _____ posits that crime is a rational decision to violate any law and is made for a variety of reasons, including greed, revenge, need, anger, lust, jealousy, thrill-seeking, or vanity.
Deterrence theory
The view that if the probability of arrest, conviction, and sanctioning increases, crime rates should decline.
Control
The violent person may want to control their victim's behavior and life.
Is violence rational
Violence is a matter of choice and serves specific goals: - Control. - Retribution. - Deterrence. - Reputation. - Rational robbers. - Rational killers. - Rational sex criminals. - Rational hate crimes.
1. Displacement. 2. Extinction. 3. Encouragement
What are the costs to situational crime prevention that limit their effectiveness?
1. Diffusion. 2. Discouragement.
What are the hidden benefits of situational crime efforts?
• There is little evidence that incapacitating criminals will deter them from future criminality and even more reason to believe they may be more inclined to commit crimes upon release. The more prior incarceration experience inmates have, the more likely they are to recidivate (and return to prison) within 12 months of their release. Former inmates often suffer post-release personal and financial problems that cause them to commit more crimes than they might have had they not been sentenced to prison. The crimes that are "saved" while they serve time are more than made up for by the extra ones they commit because they are now "ex-cons." • By its nature, the prison experience exposes young, first time offenders to higher-risk, more experienced inmates who can influence their lifestyle and help shape their attitude. Novice inmates also run an increased risk of becoming infected with AIDS and other health hazards, and that exposure reduces their life chances after release. The short-time crime reduction effect of incapacitating criminals is negated if the prison experience has a long-term effect of escalating frequency of criminal behavior upon release. • The economics of crime suggest that if money can be made from criminal activity, there will always be someone to take the place of the incarcerated offender. New criminals will be recruited and trained, offsetting any benefit accrued by incarceration. Imprisoning established offenders may likewise open new opportunities for competitors who were suppressed by more experienced criminals. Incarcerating gang members or organized crime figures may open crime and illegal drug markets to new groups and gangs who are even hungrier and more aggressive than the gangs they replaced. • Most criminal offenses are committed by teens and very young adult offenders who are unlikely to be sent to prison for a single felony conviction. Aging criminals are already past the age when they are likely to commit crime. As a result, a strict incarceration policy may keep people in prison beyond the time they are a threat to society while a new cohort of high-risk adolescents is on the street. • If incarceration were routinely used, the "value" of each commitment would be reduced. Locking up a murderer saves society millions in costs; locking up a shoplifter saves very little. The more incarceration is used, the less "bang for the buck." • Eventually, most inmates return to society in a process referred to as reentry. In most states, prison inmates, especially those convicted of drug crimes, have come from comparatively few urban inner-city areas. Their return may contribute to family disruption, undermine social institutions, and create community disorganization. Rather than act as a crime suppressant, incarceration may have the long-term effect of accelerating crime rates. • The incarceration crime rate relationship is not linear or predictable. There are times when a surge in incarceration coincides with a significant decline in crime rates (1991-2000); however, during other time periods, crime rate increases coincided with increasing incarceration rates (1984-1991). Such findings weaken the argument that the key to lower crime rates is locking people up for long periods of time.
What are some of the limitation of incapacitation as an effective method of crime control?
1. An antecedent incident leaves that leaves one group with a grievance against another. 2. A definable target group held responsible for the deed. 3. Publicity sufficient to make the event known to a broad public. All these are signs of rationality. Source: Ryan King and Gretchen Sutto, "High Times for Hate Crimes: Explaining the Temporal Clustering I'd Hate-Motivated Offending," 'Criminology' 51 (2013): 871-894.
When Ryan King and Gretchen Sutto examined the characteristics of an outbreak of hate crimes they found that three factors seem to trigger these events. What are they?
Blameworthy
basing punishment solely on whether a person is responsible for wrongdoing and deserving of censure or blame.
Defensible space
the principle that crime prevention can be achieved through modifying the physical environment to reduce the opportunity individuals have to commit crime.
Situational crime prevention
A method of crime prevention that stresses tactics and strategies to eliminate or reduce particular crimes in narrow settings, such as reducing burglaries in a housing project by increasing lighting and installing security alarms. • This strategy is aimed at convincing would be criminals to avoid specific targets. It relies on the doctrine that crime can be avoided if motivated offenders are denied access to suitable targets. • Operationalizations of the strategy are home security systems or guards, which broadcast the message that guardianship is great here, stay away; the potential reward is not worth the risk of apprehension. • Problems with the strategy are the extinction of the effect and displacement of crime. - Defensible Space. - CRAVED model of crime choice.
Criminality
A personal trait of the individual as distinct from a "crime," which is an event.
Englihtenment
A philosophical, intellectual, and cultural movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that stressed reason, logic, criticism, education, and freedom of thought over dogma and superstition.
Displacement
A program that helps lower crime rates at specific locations or neighborhoods may be redirecting offenders to alternative targets. Beefed-up police patrols in one area may shift crimes to a more vulnerable neighborhood.
Social contract
A proposition by philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1678) that states that people naturally pursue their own self-interests but are rational enough to realize that selfishness will produce social chaos, so they agree to give up their own selfish interests as long as everyone else does the same thing.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
A social philosopher that came up with the idea of "utilitarian calculus", which states that people choose to act when, after weighing costs and benefits, they believe that their actions will bring them an increase in pleasure and a reduction of pain.
• Whether they possess the necessary skills to commit the crime. • Their immediate need for money or other valuables. • Whether legitimate financial alternatives to crime exist, such as a high-paying job. • Whether they have available resources to commit the crime. • Their fear of expected apprehension and punishment. • Availability of alternative criminal acts, such as selling drugs. Physical ability, including health, strength, and dexterity.
Before deciding to commit crime, individuals must decide whether they have the prerequisites to commit a successful criminal act. This might include evaluation of...
During the Enlightenment (1600-1700s)
Bentham embraces the view that human behavior is a result of rational thought and processes.
1. Market-related. 2. Status-based. 3. Personalistic. Source: Bruce A. Jacobs and Richard Wright, "Researching Drug Robbery," 'Crime and Delinquency' 54 (2008): 511-531.
Bruce Jacobs and Richard Wright used in-depth interviews with street robbers who target drug dealers and found that their crimes are a response to one of what 3 types of violations?
1. Personal shame over violating the law. 2. The fear of public humiliation is the deviant behavior becomes public knowledge.
Fear and shame manifest themselves in what two ways?
Diffuse level of responsibility (employees with general assignment)
Guardians (Monitoring Suitable Targets): Accountant notes shoplifting. Handlers (Monitoring Likely Offenders): School clerk discourages truancy. Managers (Monitoring Amenable Places): Hotel maid impairs trespasser. (Crime Discouragers: Types of Supervisors and Objects of Supervision) Source: Adapted from 'Crime and Place', ed. John E. Eck and David Weisburd (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010).
General level of responsibility (strangers, other citizens)
Guardians (Monitoring Suitable Targets): Bystander reports shoplifter. Handlers (Monitoring Likely Offenders): Stranger questions teens at mall. Managers (Monitoring Amenable Places): Customer observed parking garage. (Crime Discouragers: Types of Supervisors and Objects of Supervision) Source: Adapted from 'Crime and Place', ed. John E. Eck and David Weisburd (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010).
Personal level of responsibility (owners, family, friends)
Guardians (Monitoring Suitable Targets): Student keeps eye on own laptop. Handlers (Monitoring Likely Offenders): Parent makes sure child gets home from school. Managers (Monitoring Amenable Places): Homeowner monitors house. (Crime Discouragers: Types of Supervisors and Objects of Supervision) Source: Adapted from 'Crime and Place', ed. John E. Eck and David Weisburd (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010).
Enjoyable
Hot products tend to be enjoyable things to own or consume, such as the newest electronic gadget or flashy bling.
Immediate impact
If capital punishment is a deterrent, the reasoning goes, then its impact should be greatest after a well-publicized execution. However, most research has failed to find evidence that an execution produces an immediate decline in the murder rate; even highly publicized executions had little impact on the murder rate.
Time-series studies
If capital punishment is a deterrent, then periods that have an upswing in executions should also experience a downturn in violent crime and murder. Most research efforts have failed to show such a relationship. Economic conditions, population density, and incarceration rates have a much greater impact on the murder rate than does the death penalty.
Comparative research
It is also possible to compare murder rates in jurisdictions that have abolished the death penalty with the rates in jurisdictions that routinely employ the death penalty. Studies using this approach have found little difference between the murder rates of adjacent states, regardless of their use of the death penalty; capital punishment did not appear to affect the reported rate of homicide.
Concealable
Merchandise that is easily hidden is more vulnerable to shoplifters than bulkier items. Things are difficult to identify after being stolen are desirable. While it might be possible to identify a diamond ring, commodities such as copper tubing are easily concealable.
Contemporary Choice Theory Emerges
Mid-1970s: - A renewed interest in the classical approach to crime. - Rehabilitation failed to prevent future criminal activity. - A significant increase in the reported crime rate, as well as serious disturbances in the nation's prisons, frightened the general public. Thinking About Crime: Criminals are rational actors who planned their crimes, feared punishment, and deserved to be penalized for their misdeeds. Impact on Crime Control - 1980s: - Conservative views shaped justice policy to pass tougher laws and mandatory sentences. - Views the decision to commit crime as being shaped by human emotions and thought processes.
• They stand a good chance of being caught and punished. • They begin to fear the consequences of punishment. • They learn that crime rarely pays as well as they thought. • They risk losing the respect of their peers, damaging their reputations, and experiencing feelings of guilt or shame. • The grasp the fact that the risk of apprehension outweighs the profit and/or pleasure of crime.
The decision to forgo crime and seek other means to solve problems may occur when those who contemplate crime realize they risks outweigh rewards. Give examples.
Tipping point
the minimum amount of expected punishment necessary to produce a significant reduction in crime rates.
Specific deterrence (special or individual deterrence)
the view that if experienced punishment is severe enough, convicted offenders will be deterred from repeating their criminal activity. • This strategy refers to punishing known criminals so severely that they will never be tempted to repeat their offenses. If crime is rational, then painful punishment should reduce its future allure. • Operationalizations of the strategy are harsh prisons and stiff fines. • The problem with this strategy is that punishment may increase reoffending rates rather than deter crime.
• Fairness to the victim and the victim's family (i.e., otherwise they might seek vengeance on their own). • Fairness to law-abiding persons (who refrained from committing this offense). • Fairness to the defendant (who has a right to be punished in proportion to their blameworthiness).
According to Frase, fairness is brought to the justice process by assessing blame in a fair and even-handed manner. Give examples.
• The offenders intent (e.g., deliberate wrongdoing is considered more serious than criminal negligence). • Their capacity to obey the law (e.g., blameworthiness is tempered by such conditions as mental disease or defect, chemical dependency, or situational factors such as threats or other strong inducements to commit the crime). • The offender's motives for committing the crime (which may mitigate or aggravate culpability). • For multi-defendant crimes, the defendant's role in the offense as instigator, leader, follower, primary actor, or minor player. Source: Richard Frase, "Punishment Purposes," Stanford Law Review' 67 (2005): 67-85.
According to Frase, in contemporary society, fault is measured by what factors?
• They come to believe that crime pays. Offenders believe that crime is the best and maybe the only way for them to get ahead financially and that provides emotional benefits as well, such a satisfaction and excitement. • They believe that conventional success, such as decent jobs and respectable status, is beyond reach. • Crime is considered something necessary and/or expected. There is no guilt for crimes because crime is considered acceptable, attractive, and desirable. • They assess that their bond to conventional society is severed beyond repair and that consequently they have little to lose by committing crime. • They decide to adapt identities favorable to crime, although they do not necessarily think of themselves as "criminals." They may view themselves as thieves, hustlers, gangstas, gangbangers, thugs, crazy, wild, outlaws, hardmen, badasses, real men, and/or other identities conducive to crime. Choosing a "bad identity" involves an emphasis on masculinity, and is defined by physical and emotional toughness. Source: Robert Agnew and Steven F. Messner, "General Assessments and Thresholds for Chronic Offending: An Enriched Paradigm for Explaining Crime," 'Criminology' 53 (2015): 571-596.
According to human agency, crime becomes a reasonable alternative when, after making these assessments...
1. The nature and seriousness of the harm caused or threatened by the crime. 2. The offender's degree of fault in committing the crime. Source: Ibid.
According to legal scholar Richard Frase, what two basic elements determine an offender's degree of blameworthiness?
1. Potential targets are guarded securely. 2. The means to commit crime are controlled. 3. Potential offenders are carefully monitored.
According to situational crime prevention, criminal acts will be avoided if...
Reasoning criminals
According to the rational choice approach, law-violating behavior occurs when an offender decides to risk breaking the law after considering both personal factors (such as the need for money, revenge, thrills, and entertainment) and situational factors (how well a target is protected and the efficiency of the local police force).
Does incarceration control crime?
Advocates of incapacitation suggest that this growth in the prison/jail population is directly responsible for the decade-long decline in the crime rate. Opponents claim little evidence that incapacitating criminal will deter them from future crime.
Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)
An Italian social philosopher that proposed his famous treatise "On Crime and Punishment" in which he called for fair and certain punishment to deter crime. He suggested that (a) people choose all behavior, including criminal behavior; (b) their choices are designed to bring them pleasure and reduce pain; (c) criminal choices can be controlled by fear of punishment; and (d) the 'more severe, certain, and swift the punishment', the greater its ability to control criminal behavior. The development of rational classical criminology is most closely identified with the thoughts of Beccaria (1738-1794). People choose all behavior, including criminal behavior People's choices are designed to bring them pleasure and reduce pain Criminal choices can be controlled by fear of punishment. The more severe, certain, and swift the punishment, the greater its ability to control criminal behavior. Punishment must be proportional to the seriousness of crime; if not, people would commit more serious offenses—known today as marginal deterrence. Suggested that the extremely harsh punishments of the day and routine use of torture were inappropriate and excessive.
Reputation
An attack may be motivated by the need to enhance reputation and create self-important in the eyes of others.
Permeable neighborhood
Areas with a greater than usual number of access streets from traffic arteries into the neighborhood.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Argued that there was a God-Given "Natural law" that was based on people's tendency to do good.
• In every society, people have free will to choose criminal or lawful solutions to meet their needs or settle their problems. • Criminal solutions can be very attractive because for little effort they hold the promise of a huge pay off. • A person will choose not to commit crime only if they believe that the pain of expected punishment is greater than the promise of reward. This is the principle of deterrence. • In order to be an effective crime deterrent, punishment must be severe, certain, and swift enough to convince potential criminals that "crime does not pay."
As originally conceived in the eighteenth century, classical criminology has what several basic elements?
Restrictive deterrence
Convincing criminals that committing a serious crime is too risky and that other less-dangerous crimes or actions might be a better choice.
Discouragement
Crime control efforts targeting a particular locale help reduce crime in surrounding areas and populations. When protection efforts become effective. Potential criminals may experience this. This may cause then to either leave the area or seek other methods of gaining financial rewards.
1. Control. 2. Retribution. 3. Deterrence. 4. Reputation. Source: Richard B. Felson, 'Violence and Gender Reexamined' (Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2002).
Crime expert Richard Felson argues that violence is a matter of choice and serves specific goals. Give examples.
Encouragement
Crime reduction programs may boomerang and increase rather than decrease the potentiality for crime. Some situational efforts rely on increasing the risk of crime by installing street lighting, assuming that rational criminals will avoid areas where their criminal activities are more visible. Take for instance street lighting: many people believe that criminals will avoid a well-lit straight. Such plans may backfire. Well-lit areas may bring a greater number of potential victims and potential offenders into the same physical space; increase visibility may allow potential offenders to make better judgments of target vulnerability and attractiveness (e.g., they can spot people with jewelry and other valuables). Increased illumination may make it easier for offenders to commit crimes and to escape. Source: Brandon Welsh and David Farrington, "Crime Prevention and Hard Technology: The Case of CCTV and Improved Street Lighting," in "The New Technology of Crime, Law, and Social Control, ed. James Byrne and Donald Rebovich (Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press, 2007).
Can punishment produce more crime?
Criminal sanctions should be so powerful that known criminals will never repeat their criminal acts.
Structuring crime
Decisions must be made about what, where, when, and whom to target. Choosing the Type of Crime - The choice of crime may be dictated by market conditions. Choosing the Time and Place of Crime - Criminal behavior may be altered according to shifting opportunity structures. Selecting the Target of Crime
Available
Desirable objects that are widely available and easy to find are at high risk for theft. Cars actually become a greater risk as they get older because similar models need parts and car thieves can bring them to chop shops to be stripped. Older cars are also owned by people living in disorganized neighborhoods with motivated offenders and limited security.
Diffusion of benefits
Efforts to prevent one crime help prevent another; in other instances, crime control efforts in one locale reduce crime in another area. This may be produced by two independent effects: we can see the effect of this when video cameras set up in a mall to reduce shoplifting and also reduce vandalism. Police surveillance teams whose aim is to control trafficking in a known drug zone unintentionally reduce the incidence of prostitution and other public order crimes by scaring off would be clients (drug users). Intensive police patrols designed to target team gangs in one area of town has been shown to help reduce crime in neighboring areas as well.
• The offender reduces the number of crimes they commit during a particular period of time. • The offender commits less serious crimes, assuming that even if they are apprehended, the punishment will not be as severe for a more minor infraction (thus, an offender shoplifts a $100 pair of jeans instead of robbing a convenience store for the same monetary award). • The offender takes actions to reduce the chance that they will be caught and to increase the chance that the contemplated offense will be undertaken without risk of detection (e.g., wearing a disguise to avoid being identified by the victim). • Recognizing danger, the offender commits the same crime at a different place or time. Source: Bruce A. Jacobs, "Deterrence and Deterrability," 'Criminology' 48 (2010): 417-442.
Potential criminals find ways to adapt to restrictive deterrence. Give examples.
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. 4. To prevent crime as cheaply as possible Source: Ibid., p. xi.
Punishment has what 4 main objectives?
Crackdowns
The concentration of police resources on particular problem areas, such as street-level drug dealing, to eradicate or displace criminal activity.
Marginal deterrence
The concept that a penalty for a crime may prompt commission of a marginally more severe crime because that crime receives the same magnitude of punishment as the original one.
Why Crime?
The core premise of rational choice theory is that some people choose crime under some circumstances.
Edgework
The excitement or exhilaration of successfully executing illegal activities in dangerous situations.
Just dessert
The philosophy of justice that asserts that those who violate the rights of others deserve to be punished. The severity of punishment should be commensurate with the seriousness of the crime. Punishment is needed to preserve the social equity disturbed by crime. Desert theory is also concerned with the rights of the accused. Retribution justifies punishment because people deserve what they get for past deeds. Punishment based on deterrence or incapacitation is wrong because it involves an offender's future actions, which cannot accurately be predicted.
Disposable
Thieves tend to target items that are easy to sell. Cartons of cigarettes can be resold a discount to a convenience store. While more valuable, it's tougher to sell a Picasso print.
Valuable
Thieves will generally choose more expensive, in-demand goods that are easily sold. Some may want to keep valuable goods for themselves and target goods that will confer status, such as a Rolex.
1. Increase the effort needed to commit crime. 2. Reduce the opportunity to commit crime. 3. Increase the risks of committing crime. 4. Reduce the rewards for committing crime. 5. Reduce provocation/induce guilt or shame for committing crime. 6. Reduce excuses for committing crime. Source: Derek Cornish and Ronald Clarke, "Opportunities, Precipitators and Criminal Decisions: A Reply to Wortley's Critique of Situational Crime Prevention," 'Crime Prevention Studies' 16 (2003): 41-96; Ronald Clarke and Ross Homel, "A Revised Classification of Situational Prevention Techniques," in 'Crime Prevention at a Crossroads, ed. Stephen P. Lab (Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing, 1997).
Typically, situational crime prevention efforts are divided into a number of strategies, such as what?
• Offenders may believe they have learned from their experiences, and now know how to beat the system and get away with crime. • Severely punished offenders may represent the "worst of the worst," who will offend again no matter what punishment they experience. • Punishment may bring defiance rather than deterrence. People who are harshly treated may want to show that they cannot be broken by the system. Punishment may be perceived as capricious, unjust, or unfair, which causes sanctioned offenders to commit additional crimes as a way to lash out and retaliate. • Harsh treatment labels and stigmatize offenders, locking them into a criminal career. • Criminals who are punished may also believe that the likelihood of getting caught twice for the same type of crime is remote: "Lightning never strikes twice in the same spot," they may reason; no one is that unlucky.
What are the factors that might help explain why severe punishments promote rather than restrict criminality?