|
In criminology, the Rational Choice Theory adopts a Utilitarian belief that man is a reasoning actor who weighs means and ends, costs and benefits, and makes a rational choice. Image File history File links Scale_of_justice. ...
Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. ...
Penology (from the Latin poena, punishment) comprises penitentiary science: that concerned with the processes devised and adopted for the punishment, repression, and prevention of crime, and the treatment of prisoners. ...
For the band, see Anomie (band) Anomie, in contemporary English, means a condition or malaise in individuals, characterized by an absence or diminution of standards or values. ...
In criminology, Differential Association is a theory developed by Edwin Sutherland proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. ...
Deviant behavior is behavior that is a recognized violation of social norms. ...
Labeling Theory (or Labelling Theory)views given by Howard Becker (1963) is relevant to criminology and sociology explaining how criminal behavior is perpetuated by the police and other labelers. It relates to symbolic interactionism and to social reaction theory and it is concerned with the nature, application, and consequence of...
asss This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...
In criminology, the Social Disorganisation Theory was one of the most important theories developed by the Chicago School, related to ecological theories. ...
In criminology, Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess (1966) developed Social Learning Theory to explain deviancy by combining variables which encouraged delinquency (e. ...
In criminology, the Strain Theories state that social structures within society may encourage citizens to commit crime. ...
In criminology, Subcultural Theory emerged from the work of the Chicago School on gangs and developed into a set of theories arguing that certain groups or subcultures in society have values and attitudes that are conducive to crime and violence. ...
Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective which examines how individuals and groups interact, focusing on the creation of personal identity through interaction with others. ...
Victimology is the study of why certain people are victims of crime and how lifestyles affect the chances that a certain person will fall victim to a crime. ...
Blue-collar crime is regarded as consisting of violent crimes such as murder, rape, kidnapping, and vandalism, as well as things like shoplifting and burglary -- as opposed to white-collar crime. ...
In criminology, corporate crime refers to crimes either committed by a corporation, i. ...
Juvenile delinquency refers to antisocial or criminal acts performed by juveniles. ...
Organized crime is crime carried out systematically by formal criminal organizations. ...
In the standard sense of the phrase, a political crime is an action deemed illegal by a government in order to control real or imagined threats to its survival, at the expense of a range of human rights and freedoms. ...
In criminology public order crime is defined by Siegel (2004) as ...crime which involves acts that interfere with the operations of society and the ability of people to function efficiently, i. ...
In criminology, public order crime case law in the United States is essential to understanding how the courts interpret the policy of laws where the moral and social order of the state appears to be threatened by clearly identified behavior. ...
In criminology, state crime is activity or failures to act that break the states own criminal law or public international law. ...
In criminology, the concept of state-corporate crime refers to crimes that result from the relationship between the policies of the state and the policies and practices of commercial corporations. ...
White-collar crimes (a term coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939) or business crimes are those crimes specifically performed by white collar employees. ...
Deterrence ALOHA!! is a means of controlling a persons behavior through negative motivational influences, namely fear of punishment. ...
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system. ...
Prisoner abuse is the mistreatment of persons while they are under arrest or incarcerated. ...
The movement for Prisoners rights is based on the principle that prisoners, even though they are deprived of liberty, are still entitled to basic human rights. ...
This theory of punishment is based on the notion that punishment is to be inflicted on a offender so as to reform him, or rehabilitate him so as to make his re-integration into society easier. ...
Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior. ...
Retributive justice is a theory of criminal justice wherein punishments are justified on the grounds that the criminal has created an imbalance in the social order that must be addressed by action against the criminal. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Discussion This theory draws on the Classical School represented by the works of Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria. In particular, it assumes that the rational decision is always the decision that will maximise gain and minimise pain for each individual: the felicitation principle that underpinned the penal policy of deterrence. Hence, if the actor is rational, the state can influence any given decision by ensuring that the system for investigating criminal activity will swiftly detect the person responsible and the system of law enforcement through the courts will dispense sufficient pain to each offender so that there will be both specific deterrence (i.e. that particular offender will never choose to break the law again), and general deterrence (other potential criminals, observing the punishment of the one offender, will be deterred from following in his or her footsteps (Keel: 1997). The Classical School in criminology is usually a reference to the eighteenth century work during the Enlightenment by the utilitarian and social contract philosophers Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria. ...
Jeremy Bentham (IPA: or ) (February 15, 1748 O.S. (February 26, 1748 N.S.) – June 6, 1832) was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. ...
Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria (or the Marchese de Beccaria-Bonesana) (March 11, 1738 - November 28, 1794) was an Italian philosopher and politician. ...
Deterrence ALOHA!! is a means of controlling a persons behavior through negative motivational influences, namely fear of punishment. ...
A state is a set of institutions that possess the authority to make the rules that govern a society, having internal and external sovereignty over a definite territory. ...
A court is an official, public forum which a sovereign establishes by lawful authority to adjudicate disputes, and to dispense civil, labour, administrative and criminal justice under the law. ...
The Neoclassical School continues the traditional view that the punishment imposed by the state for the crime represents the deterrent. However, they depart from the original theory by increasing the severity of sentences and limiting judicial discretion, e.g. as in the United States with the three strikes law. This emphasises the social value of punishment rather than seeing punishment as an offender's just deserts in a system of retributive justice. It uses the offender as a symbol through which to send a message to society, rather than as a human being who should be judged on his or her merits. This view has certain moral implications and high costs in maintaining a prison system for an increasing number of prisoners. Research has consistently shown that certainty of arrest rather than severity of punishment is the major deterrent, the statistics have shown a steady increase in reported crime, and experiments in rehabilitation have failed to prevent recidivism. It was therefore argued that the existing theories failed to provide a workable solution to the crime problem. Thus, Rational Choice Theory focuses on prevention as a deterrent to crime rather than punishment, and the modern exponents differ from the Classical School by making allowances for factors such as morality, inaccurate information, and fear. Clarke (1997: 9-10) posits that, "...crime is purposive behaviour designed to meet the offender’s commonplace needs for such things as money, status, sex, excitement, and that meeting these needs involves the making of (sometimes quite rudimentary) decisions and choices, constrained as they are by limits of time and ability and the availability of relevant information." i.e., offenders make decisions that appear rational to themselves, and they can be persuaded not to engage in crime. Clarke also draws on the work of Gary Becker (1968) and the economic theories of crime and punishment but, unlike economic theories that ignore non-cash equivalent rewards, Clarke acknowledges that crime has a reckless element as opposed to the pure self-maximizing decision-making (Clarke, 1997: 9). In criminology, the Neo-Classical School continues the traditions of the Classical School within the framework of Right Realism. ...
In law, a sentence forms the final act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. ...
Three strikes laws are a highly controversial category of statutes enacted by state governments in the United States which require the state courts to hand down a mandatory and extended period of incarceration to persons who have been convicted of a serious criminal offense on three or more separate occasions. ...
Retributive justice is a theory of criminal justice wherein punishments are justified on the grounds that the criminal has created an imbalance in the social order that must be addressed by action against the criminal. ...
Human relationships within an ethnically diverse society. ...
Morality refers to the concept of human ethics which pertains to matters of good and evil —also referred to as right or wrong, used within three contexts: individual conscience, systems of principles and judgments — sometimes called moral values —shared within a cultural, religious, secular, Humanist, or philosophical community; and codes...
This theory of punishment is based on the notion that punishment is to be inflicted on a offender so as to reform him, or rehabilitate him so as to make his re-integration into society easier. ...
Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior. ...
Morality refers to the concept of human ethics which pertains to matters of good and evil —also referred to as right or wrong, used within three contexts: individual conscience, systems of principles and judgments — sometimes called moral values —shared within a cultural, religious, secular, Humanist, or philosophical community; and codes...
Gary Stanley Becker (born December 2, 1930) is an American economist. ...
Elements The theory is related to earlier Drift Theory (Matza: 1964) where people use the techniques of neutralisation to drift in and out of delinquent behaviour, and the Systematic Crime Theory (an aspect of Social Disorganisation Theory developed by the Chicago School), where Edwin Sutherland proposed that the failure of families and extended kin groups expands the realm of relationships no longer controlled by the community, and undermines governmental controls. This leads to persistent "systematic" crime and delinquency. He also believed that such disorganisation causes and reinforces the cultural traditions and cultural conflicts that support antisocial activity. The systematic quality of the behaviour was a reference to repetitive, patterned or organised offending as opposed to random events. He depicted the law-abiding culture as dominant and more extensive than alternative criminogenic cultural views and capable of overcoming systematic crime if organised for that purpose (1939: 8). In a similar vein, Cohen and Felson (1979) developed Routine Activities Theory which focuses on the characteristics of crime rather than the characteristics of the offender. This is one of the main theories of environmental criminology as an aspect of Crime Prevention Theory. It states that for a crime to occur, three elements must be present, i.e. there must be: In sociology and, later, criminology, the Chicago School (sometimes described as the Ecological School) refers to the first major body of works emerging during the 1920s and 1930s specialising in urban sociology, and the research into the urban environment by combining theory and ethnographic fieldwork in Chicago, now applied elsewhere. ...
From The American System of Criminal Justice by George F. Cole and Christopher E. Smith, Tenth Edition, Page 14: Crimes cimitted in the course of business were first described by crimonologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939, when he developed the concept of white-collar crime. ...
This article or section needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ...
Environmental criminology focuses on criminal patterns within particular built environments and analyzes the impacts of these external variables on people’s cognitive behaviour. ...
- an available and suitable target;
- a motivated offender; and
- no authority figure to prevent the crime from happening.
Routine Activities Theory relates the pattern of offending to the everyday patterns of social interaction. Between 1960 and 1980, women left the home to work which led to social disorganisation, i.e. the routine of leaving the home unattended and without an authority figure increased probability of criminal activity. The theory is supplemented by the crime triangle or the problem analysis triangle [1] which is used in the analysis both of a crime problem by reference to the three parameters of victim, location, and offender, and of an intervention strategy by reference to the parameters of target/victim, location and absence of a capable guardian with the latter helping to think more constructively about responses as well as analysis.
Situational crime prevention Crime Prevention Theory, as proposed by Clarke (1995, 1997), focuses on reducing crime opportunities rather than on the characteristics of criminals or potential criminals. The strategy is to increase the associated risks and difficulties, and reduce the rewards. It asserts that crime is often committed through the accident of a practical or attractive opportunity, e.g. that a car is found unlocked or a window left open. Patterns in criminal activity are not simply based on where criminals live, but also reflect a concentration of opportunities for crime constituting "hot spots". For example, theft may concentrate on particular "hot products" and some repeat victims are more likely to experience crime than other people. Shoplifting and mugging may be endemic to identifiable locations. Hence, by using statistical data, enforcement resources can target areas, and education can reduce the number of opportunities. See crime mapping, Chainey & Ratcliffe (2005). Crime mapping is a key component of crime analysis and the CompStat policing strategy. ...
Rational Choice Theory
Through Rational Choice Theory, Cornish and Clarke (1986) describe crime as an event that occurs when an offender decides to risk breaking the law after considering his or her own need for money, personal values or learning experiences and how well a target is protected, how affluent the neighbourhood is or how efficient the local police are. Before committing a crime, the reasoning criminal weighs the chances of getting caught, the severity of the expected penalty, the value to be gained by committing the act, and his or her immediate need for that value. Sutton describes how Clark links Crime Prevention Theory to Rational Choice Theory by his proposed set of opportunity reduction techniques. The intention is to increase the perceived effort necessary to commit a crime, or increase the perceived risks of apprehension, or reduce the anticipated rewards of a crime, or remove the excuses to compliance with the law. (Clarke, 1997: 15-25). The intention would be to design out crime, i.e. to make the disincentives to the commission of crime consistently outweigh the potential benefits. This would involve concerted efforts by the manufacturers of standard equipment prone to theft, to design in better security systems so that stolen goods cannot be used without a PIN or can be tracked. It also involves the adoption of surveillance technology to tag goods in stores electronically, install camera systems to monitor behavior, improve street lighting, have more police officers on patrol, assist householders to improve their home security, etc. A co-ordinated strategy would potentially prevent more crime and so be more cost-effective than imprisoning the few offenders that are currently apprehended. This theory is predicated on the assumption that humans have sets of hierarchically ordered preferences, or utilities. By reducing the opportunities for the commission of crimes and "target hardening", i.e. making it more difficult to break into houses or to steal from shops, and encouraging more authority figures to assume responsibility, potential offenders will be deterred. There is some criticism that better protecting one area will simply displace crime into a less well protected area but the evidence is as yet equivocal on whether displacement does occur. However, the main problem is in re-ordering political priorities away from a penal-orientated stratergy towards a crime prevention strategy. At present, many states have invested heavily in the former and see no immediate need to change their policies.
References - Becker, Gary. (1968). "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach". The Journal of Political Economy 76: 169-217.
- Brantingham, Paul J. & Brantingham, Patricia L. (eds.). (1981). Environmental Criminology. Waveland Press. ISBN 0-88133-539-8
- Chainey, Spencer & Ratcliffe, Jerry. (2005). GIS and Crime Mapping. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-470-86099-5
- Clarke, Ronald R. (ed.) (1997). Situational Crime Prevention: Successful Case Studies. Second Edition. New York: Harrow and Heston. ISBN 0-911577-39-4
- Clarke, R. V. (1995), "Situational crime prevention" in Building a Safer Society: Strategic Approaches to Crime Prevention, Michael Tonry & Farrington, David (eds.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-80824-6
- Clarke, R. V. and M. Felson (Eds.) (1993). Routine Activity and Rational Choice. Advances in Criminological Theory, Vol 5. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
- Clarke, R.V. & Eck, J (2003) Becoming a Problem-Solving Crime Analyst. Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science. London: University College London. [2]
- Cornish, Derek & Clarke, Ronald V. (1986). "Introduction" in The Reasoning Criminal. Cornish, Derek and Ronald Clarke (eds.). New York: Springer-Verlag. pp 1-16. ISBN 3-540-96272-7
- Cohen, L. E. & Felson, M. (1979). "Social change and crime rate trends: a routine activity approach". American Sociological Review, Vol 44, pp588-608.
- Felson, M. (1997). "Technology, business, and crime". in Business and Crime Prevention. Felson, M. & Clarke, R. V. (eds.). Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.
- Felson, M. (1998). Crime and Everyday Life, Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
- Felson, M. & Clarke, R. V. (1998). Opportunity Makes the Thief. Police Research Series, Paper 98. Policing and Reducing Crime Unit, Research, Development and Statistics Directorate.. London: Home Office. [www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/prgpdfs/fprs98.pdf]
- Keel, R. O. (1997). Rational Choice and Deterrence Theory. [3]
- Sutton, David. Ronald V. Clark. [4]
|
Feeds |
Contact