Essay On Rational Choice Theory

The Rational Choice Theory

April Smolkowicz

Criminology 3200

Georgia Gwinnett College

According to Clarke and Cornish (2001, p. 34), “the rational choice perspective was explicitly developed to assist policy thinking … specifically through detailed modeling of criminal decision making. The theory theorizes that offenders who have chosen to commit criminal acts, do so because of the reward it brings to them. Coupled with the different conditions that are needed for specific crimes to occur, with its emphasizes on the role of crime opportunities in causation. There are six basic propositions of the rational choice: 1. Crimes are deliberate acts, with the intent of benefiting the offender. 2. Benefiting unsuccessfully in choosing the best decisions because of the risks and uncertainty involved. 3. Decision making significantly varies with the nature of the crime. 4. Involvement decisions are quite different from the commission (event decision) of a specific act. 5. Involvement decisions are divided into three stages: first time involvement (initiation), continued involvement (habituation) and ceasing to offend (desistance), 6. Event decisions include a sequence of choices made at each stage of the criminal act, involvement model,

Beginning with the article “A Descriptive Model of the Hunting Process of Seral Sex Offenders: A Rational Choice Perspective.” As Beauregard, E., Rossmo, D. Kim, and Proulx, J. (2007, p. 449) has indicated the use of qualitative data were obtained through a descriptive specific model to the hunting process, whereas it points out these nine phases: 1. offender and victim routine activities, 2. choice of hunting ground, 3. victim selection, .4. method of approach, 5. attack location choice, 6. method to bring the victim to the crime site, 7. crime location choice, 8. method to commit the crime, 9. and the victim release location