Rational Choice, Deterrence, Incapacitation and Just Desert
In seeking to answer the question, "Why do people engage in deviant
and/or criminal acts?", many researchers, as well as the general
public, have begun to focus on the element of personal choice. An
understanding of personal choice is commonly based in a conception of
rationality or rational choice. These conceptions are rooted in the
analysis of human behavior developed by the early classical theorists,
Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham. The central points of this theory
are: (1) The human being is a rational actor, (2) Rationality involves
an end/means calculation, (3) People (freely) choose all behavior,
both conforming and deviant, based on their rational calculations, (4)
The central element of calculation involves a cost benefit analysis:
Pleasure versus Pain, (5) Choice, with all other conditions equal,
will be directed towards the maximization of individual pleasure, (6)
Choice can be controlled through the perception and understanding of
the potential pain or punishment that will follow an act judged to be
in violation of the social good, the social contract, (7) The state is
responsible for maintaining order and preserving the common good
through a system of laws (this system is the embodiment of the social
contract), (8) The Swiftness, Severity, and Certainty of punishment
are the key elements in understanding a law's ability to control human
behavior. Classical theory, however, dominated thinking about deviance
for only a short time. Positivist research on the external (social,
psychological, and biological) "causes" of crime focused attention on
the factors that...
... middle of paper ...
...ically based control policy (punish
and deter individuals) address the issues that surround the social
construction of crime and deviance?
References and Related Readings
Bureau of Justice Statistics-1989, UNCRIM Gopher, SUNY-Albany, 1994.
Marcus Felson, Crime and Everyday Life: Insight and Implications for
Society, Pine Forge Press, 1994.
Allen Liska, Perspectives on Deviance, 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, 1987.
Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld, Crime and the American Dream,
Wadsworth, 1994.
Stephan Pfohl, Images of Deviance and Social Control: A Sociological
History, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, 1994.
Edwin Pfuhl and Stuart Henry, The Deviance Process, 3rd ed., Aldine de
Gruyter, 1993.
Larry Siegel, Criminology, 4th ed., West publishing, 1992.
URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/200/ratchoc.html
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Pratt, T. C. (2008). Rational Choice theory, criminal control policy, and criminology relevance. Policy essay, 43-52.
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Hayes, T. A. 2010. Labelling and the Adoption of a Deviant Status. Deviant Behaviour, 31 (3), pp. 282-297.