Crime can be defined as an illegal action committed by people and that action is punishable by law. There are many reasons that drive people to commit crime. Some of them would be poverty, depression and other social and mental disorders. For this paper, I chose to write about the Greyhound Bus beheading case. There are many theories that would explain why Vincent Li (the murderer) committed the crime. Some of the theories that I chose to include for this case are the demonological theory, the classical and the strain theory of crime. On July 30, 2008, a 22 years old Canadian man Tim Mclean stabbed and beheaded by 40 years old Vincent Li in Manitoba while riding on the Greyhound bus. His reasons were that he heard voices telling to kill Tim …show more content…
The classical theory of crime says that people make rational choices when they commit crimes. “Individuals have the will and rationality to act according to their own will and desires. Individuals will calculate the rationality of the crime based on the benefits of the crime versus the consequences of the crime” (Robinson, 2014). This theory discuses that how people think about the negative and positive outcomes before they commit crime. Even though they realize it is not right, they still continue to commit illegal offence because they believe that what they are doing is for the greater …show more content…
Classical theory on the other hand would argue that everyone has free will and they choose the actions they choose to take. Also, classical theory says that the person who commits the crime do so because they believe that there is advantage by committing the crime. “The temptation, then, may be said to be strong, when the pleasure or advantage to be got from the crime is such as in the eyes of the offender must appear great in comparison of the trouble and danger that appear to him to accompany the enterprise: slight or weak, when that pleasure or advantage is such as must appear small in comparison of such trouble and such danger” (Bentham, 1781). Vincent Li mentioned that god has send him to kill the evil (Tim). Vincent believed that by killing Tim, people would benefit from it and they would be