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Theories Of Situational Crime Prevention

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Decision making plays an important role in our lives daily, whether they’re poorly made decisions or not. When committing a crime, the criminal has to make the decision of whether to commit the crime or not. In the theory Rational Choice Theory believes criminals who commits crime often weighs the benefit and the cost - the weigh of benefit usually overweighs the cost of the crime. Situational Crime Prevention being an effective way for crime prevention and cost-effective, there are five broad categories in crime prevention: increase the effort, increase the risk, reduce the rewards, reduce provocations, and remove excuses. (Boyd. 2015) Crimes are committed when an opportunity is available and depending on the circumstances and person. There’s …show more content…

Impulsive decision making would be committing a crime without thinking, they’re usually made too quickly. Imperfect decision making would be someone receiving the wrong/misleading informations, example, “I didn’t know they had security cameras.” Being under influences, such as intoxication from alcohol or drugs or even from emotions are impaired decision making. (Boyd, 2015) Although decision making is a big part of committing crimes the person committing the crime has to decide the benefit of the crime has to outweigh the cost. This theory is known as Rational Choice Theory, a modern version of Classical School Thinking (Boyd, 2015). Situational Crime Prevention seeks to alter the costs and benefits involved in crime choices, it is also known as a very effective way of preventing crime and most cost-effective. Situational Crime Prevention also factors in the importance of the environment, product and system. (Boyd, 2015) There are five broad categories in Crime Prevention for Situational Crime Prevention: increase the effort needed to commit a crime by making the target harder to get to, increase the risks …show more content…

Hayward argued, “despite considerable success in combating certain forms of economic/acquisitive criminality, much of this Rational Choice Theory inspired Situational Crime Prevention lacks reflexivity.” (Hayward, 2007) Hayward criticizes how Rational Choice Theory emerges from the discipline and behavioural psychology, he believes that Rational Choice Theory may not be the best theory and believes that people should use Cultural Criminology, a theory where crimes are in the context of culture. “Cultural Criminology points to the subjective experiences and highly textured socio-cultural situations behind all crimes.” (Hayward, 2007) Theory’s as to why people commit crime and Situational Crime Prevention practices aren’t as effective as many claim for it to be. Essentially, Hayward believes Rational Choice Theory is not a valid theory and people should use Cultural Criminology, however, Farrell thinks Haywards argument was poorly written and Rational Choice Theory is still the best theory to

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While a few theories are not as regular, others have developed and are utilized as a part of numerous criminal reviews today. Cutting edge criminologists consolidate the most important aspects of sociology, psychology, anthropology, and biological theories to advance their comprehension of criminal behavior. Rational choice theory, psychological, biological, and strain theory are used to analyze the

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186 Words | 1 Pages

Supposed someone name Alice enjoys street racing with the thrill of winning big prizes and competing against other street racers in their fancy cars. But Alice also enjoys the danger of this illegal activity. As a street racer, she enjoys trespassing on private properties, carjacking, vandalism, and the possible contact with law enforcement. She understands all these risks can lead to her in jail or be killed, but she doesn’t regret her decision in participating in street racing. This is one of the examples of a rational choice theory.

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938 Words | 4 Pages

While some theories are not as common, others have evolved and are used in many criminal studies today. Cutting edge criminologists consolidate the most important aspects of sociology, psychology, anthropology, and biological theories to advance their comprehension of criminal behavior. Rational choice theory, psychological, biological, and strain theory are used to analyze the facts of Hernandez’s crime. Biological Theory is

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1206 Words | 5 Pages

Within the past couple of decades, criminologists have developed different criminological theories that apply to the social behaviors and decisions of criminals. One of the earliest theories developed regarding criminality is the rational choice theory, in which describes the rationalization of determining if the rewards from committing the crime outweigh the consequences. In Scarver’s case, his decision to engage in criminal activities outweighed the potential consequences, or the other alternatives if he did not engage in such criminal activities. In addition to the rational choice theory, Scarver’s criminality can be related to the social disorganization theory, which describes the influence of one’s social and physical environment on one’s decision to commit a crime. Lastly, the strain theory can be related to Scarver’s criminality as well, as it is used to describe an individual who lacks the means to obtain such goals, and aspirations, so therefore, he or she engages in criminal activities to acquire the goals.

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110 Words | 1 Pages

Rational choice theory is the most useful for understanding white collar crime. These are crimes that often require specialized knowledge, or access. They are often committed by individuals with advanced educations. This theory is vital to contemporary political science in addition to other chastisements for instance sociology and philosophy. The core of the rational choice theory can often be challenged amongst several courses of encounters, people typically do according to what they consider to result in the best inclusive outcome.

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1058 Words | 5 Pages

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

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1457 Words | 6 Pages

Criminology is the wider area that is used to evaluate the context of crime. The scientific study of criminals and crime is used for evaluating the basis and reasons of crime done by people. It makes use of different theories and school of thought in order to analyse the reasons behind criminal activities. The main purpose of this paper is to consider one criminology theory or school of thought. The criminology theory that is used for analysing the requirements of this paper is rational choice theory.

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1505 Words | 7 Pages

Third, I will explore Farrell 's critique of Hayward 's article and consider his arguments made in response to Hayward 's conclusions. Fourth, this paper will engage in its own critique of both Hayward 's and Farrell 's work and conclude with which article makes the most compelling argument. Tenets of Rational Choice Theory and Situational Crime Prevention Rational choice theory originated in the Classical School of thinking as it is based on the ideas of utilitarianism, which states that individuals make decisions that provide the greatest pleasure, as well as the ideas of free will and rational thought (Farrell and Hodgkinson, 2015). According to Farrell and

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The crimes included are burglary, white collar crime, and murder. Rational Choice Theory Do people think before they commit a crime? This question is answered by the rational choice theory that was proposed to us first as the classical theory

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Deterrence Theory A special case of the rational choice theory is the deterrence theory, which emphasizes the costs of legal sanctions (Liska & Messner, 1999). While the rational choice theory was initially applied to the field of economics, and considered all costs, the deterrence theory was initially applied to the field of law and only considered legal costs. Accordingly, as a deterrent for committing crime, increasing the severity of punishment, increasing the certainty of punishment, and increasing the celerity of punishment will all increase the legal costs for committing crime and, consequently, decrease the benefits versus cost ratio. Furthermore, there is a specific deterrence and a general deterrence (Barkan, 2006).

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869 Words | 4 Pages

Social process theory depends on the interaction between individuals and society as an explanation and is also known as interactionist perspective. This theory assumes that everyone has the potential to violate the law and that criminality is not an innate human characteristic but is instead a belief that criminal behavior is learned by interaction with others (Schmalleger, 2012). Social process feels the socialization process that occurs because of group membership is the main way through which learning occurs (Schmalleger, 2012). Social process theory views criminality as people’s interactions with various organizations, institutions, and processes in society (Siegel, 2000). This theory feels that people from all areas have the potential

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1234 Words | 5 Pages

Going to school is extremely important. It keeps people in the know and full of knowledge to successfully make their way through life’s complications. Much of it has to do with self-education, which is essentially teaching oneself how to do things. When someone goes to school, they are not necessarily teaching themselves, they are looking for a professional instructor who will teach them. There are two ways in which this can be achieved; one way involves going to a physical place such as a school building or collage campus to learn.

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Furthermore, the psychology of criminal behavior, psychology, and criminology all have a primary objective of achieving an understanding of the variation in the criminal behavior of individuals (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Empirically, the study of variation in criminal behavior is done by the studying of covariates (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). The primary covariates that PCC studies are biological, social, and psychological (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Although, criminology tends to assess criminality at an aggregate level, in comparison to the psychology of criminal conduct’s focus on an individual level. Additionally, a psychology of criminal conduct involves applying what is learned by the studying of psychological information and methods to the predicting and influencing the propensity of criminal behavior on an individual

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They seek to gain answers to what really happens on the streets, police stations, behind prison bars and courtrooms, They collect much of their information by analyzing data sets and statistical studies mainly on topics relating to drug use and homicide rates. Not only does it attempt to explain crimes within a societal background and the variations between our society, but this brings me to the three distinct theories as stated in the book on page 67, that attempt to explain why criminals behave in a certain

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Researchers have invested decades worth of time and data, attempting to answer the question of what causes crime. The study of criminological theory contains a great number of explanations, focused on discovering why exactly, crime occurs. Whether causations are biological, psychological, or sociological in nature, theory has lead us closer to answering the question of why crime happens. Perhaps causations are best explained using hybrid explanations that include a little bit of everything.

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