Is crime rational Essays - Criminology, Rational Choice Theory

Introduction Rational choice theory has no true definition. We can base rational as being a sane act or having the ability to reason. And as far as choice is concerned, it is an option or having the ability to choose. Brooke Miller Gialopsos researched what rational choice theory really consists of. During the research, Miller came across Derek B Cornish and Ronald V Clarke?s Rational Choice Theory. The Cornish and Clarke basically stated that the process of rational choice theory is to understand the rational components of offending and how the offender makes these rational decisions. This created the decision making process. Having the ability to study why offenders react in such a way really astounded Cornish and Clarke. The two came up with four decision making models: initiation, continuation, desistence, and event decision making. We will compare offender behavior with Neal Shover?s Great Pretenders: Pursuits and Careers of Persistent Thieves to better understand why the rational choice the ory was created and sufficed over more complex theories such as the sociology of deviance. Creation of Rational Choice Theory Gialopsos researched that Cornish and Clarke gained interest in the decision making process of offenders while initiated research for the Home Office Research and Planning Unit in the 1960?s to 1970?s. Their main mission was to actively research how the environment background may lead a non-offender into an offender. So to focus more on the issues, they decided to dwell into other disciplines. In July 1985, they decided to attend a multidisciplinary conference at Christ?s College in Cambridge, England and included what they had research from the Home Office Research and Planning Unit. Soon the two created a rational choice framework for studying crime and did not just focus on the aspects of pathological and deterministic elements of criminal offending but the offender perspective of offending. Such a creation led to the main interest of Cornish and Clarke?s rational choice theory. Shover stated that, ?it was not until public disclosures about crime and crime control began moving in the direction of choice-and-punishment that social scientists deigned to examine carefully the merits of key assumptions underlying the change? (pg. 151). Cornish and Clarke did state that many scientists were rejecting theories if only based off of pathological and deterministic elements. Also, some scientists became frustrated with the failure of rehabilitation. Though researching with so many elements, Cornish and Clarke concluded that the perspective of the rational choice theory consisted of outside influences, opportunities, and psychological experiences. Decision Making Models For an offender to decide to commit a crime, the offender has to make the decision to follow through with the activity. Most offenders see the opportunity and seize it while others contemplate before committing the crime. Shover stated that ?an understanding of how decisions to commit serious crime are made and the factors that influence this process are critical in determining the likely impact of crime-control policies that proved for quick, certain, and severe punishment? (pg. 152). Gialopsos stated that Cornish and Clarke believed that ?in reality, different crimes will involve different decisions, not to mention a different number of decisions, for an example, robbery will require different decisions than burglary? (pg. 216). Similar decision making research is presented by Clarke and Cornish?s Modeling Offenders? Decisions: A Framework for Research and Policy. They are basically stating that ?most theories about criminal behavior have tended to ignore the offender's decision m aking--the conscious thought processes that give purpose to and justify conduct, and the underlying cognitive mechanisms by which information about the world is selected, attended to, and processed? (pg. 147). Clarke and Cornish?s continue to state, ?but the existence of a suitably motivated individual goes only part of the way to explaining the occurrence of a criminal event-a host of immediately precipitating; situational factors must also be taken into account. And a further distinction that must be recognized by theorists concerns the various stages of criminal involvement-initial involvement, continuance, and desistance. That these separate stages of involvement may require different explanatory theories, employing a range of different variables, has been made clear by the findings of recent research into criminal careers? (pg. 164). We will begin to explore more of these theories in detail. The Initiation Theory After making the decision to