Chapter 4-- Choice Theory

Explains but does not excuse

A theory of crime suggesting that criminal behavior is a matter of personal choice made after individual considers cost and benefits

Focus on the internal and external factors rather (poverty, IQ, education) than personal choice

Criminals are rational actors; examine gain of crime versus cost of going to jail

Criminality is a rational behavior controllable by increasing the cost of crime and reducing potential for gain

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.

Money, revenge, entertainment, thrills

Target availability, security measures, police presence

Crime in which offender reacts selectively to characteristics of a particular criminal act (target yield, security devices, police, etc)

Crime in which offenders evaluate their skills, motives, needs, and fears before deciding to commit criminal act (skills, immediate need for money, financial alternatives)

Excitement, or exhilaration of successfully executing illegal activities in dangerous situations

Immediate benefits that draw offenders into law violations

Method of crime prevention that seeks to eliminate or reduce particular crimes in specific settings (guards, etc.)

Principle that crime can be prevented or displaced by modifying the physical environment to reduce the opportunity that individuals have to commit crime

Crime control policy that depends on the fear of the criminal penalties, convincing the potential law violator that the pains associated with crime outweigh its benefits

certainty, severity and swiftness of punishment

View that criminal sanctions should be so powerful that offenders will never repeat their acts