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What Are The Three Aspects Of The Deterrence Theory Of Crime

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Since modern society is plagued with “get rich quick schemes” such as gambling, the lottery, and cryptocurrency; what is preventing a rampant surge in crime? At face value, many people would assume that most don’t consider committing a crime. How could this be true when the benefits of crime can be exceptionally appealing? The answer to this can be found through the fundamental ideas of deterrence theory. Although crime can be enticing to many people, the three aspects of the deterrence theory; certainty, celerity, and severity can explain why many people's desires toward crime are never pursued. Within the three deterrents of the theory, the most potent component is the certainty aspect. The certainty component describes the effectiveness of ensuring a punishment is given to a perpetrator. This insurance of punishment distills a fear of facing a consequence and greatly decreases a person's desire to commit a crime. In …show more content…

When a person is punished quickly after committing a crime the swiftness makes them associate their penalty with the harmful behavior. When too much time is spent between the crime and the punishment, “the potential for the association to form in one’s mind is lost and ultimately the punishment—regardless of how certain or severe it is—risks losing its bite” (Pratt 4). This means that celerity is essential to having the criminal ruminate on their past action. An example of how the thinking process works with celerity can be depicted in the Milgram experiment. In this experiment, there was a “teacher” and a “learner”. The learner would suffer shocks for answering questions incorrectly. This would cause them to think through the questions because the pain would be instant when the test was “failed”. This instant punishment makes repeat offenders reconsider their criminal actions and deters them from future criminal

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The teacher would be the lab rat thinking he was administering a shock for each fallacious response, and with each erroneous reply the shock would intensify. The astonishing fact was all participants would continue to 300 volts, which would precipitate extreme torment. Furthermore, two-thirds would proceed on to shock the learner with 450 volts, which would result in death, hypothetically.

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The book “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain” by David Eagleman is a summary of how David Eagleman, a neuroscientist, thinks is the best way to reform the criminal justice system in the United States. Eagleman argues that sentencing for crimes should not be based on the crime itself but rather the person who is committing it ability to reform. Throughout the book Eagleman gives examples and explains how a person who consciously commits a crime is not completely at fault since there many factors that influence a person’s conscience mind. He cites the examples of stress and drugs as two factors that could alter a person’s personality and contribute in making a person commit a crime.

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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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“Does Crime Pay? In Dexter's case?” In the article the author discussed crime paying off in finical terms. Mr. Landsburg argues that criminals engage in risk assessment before deciding to commit a crime by weighing the potential to get caught and the possible jail time as a result. Furthermore, the writer of the article states that crime pays off when criminals are comfortable with the “small chance of a big punishment” since crimes with serious consequences generate the most rewards.

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Whether if you like historical fiction or not, this is a total masterpiece that you shouldn't miss. This, is Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz. It took place between the darkest years of Europe - 1933 to 1945. Starting the late 1930s’, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler seized neighbouring countries such as Austria and Poland. It triggered the World War II, but there were hardly any Jews left in Europe after this terrible war.

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37). Beccaria provided three characteristics that influence a person’s likelihood of committing a crime: swiftness, certainty, and severity. These were the qualities that a potential offender would deliberate on before carrying out their transgression. He believed that a punishment should come as soon as possible after the crime, should have a strong impression on potential offenders, and should be worse than the benefits from the crime (Tibbetts, p. 38). As long as a punishment had all three characteristics, a rational person should be deterred from that behavior.

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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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This fear is induced by the threat of legal punishment (Gibbs, 1979). There are two types of deterrence that include specific and general deterrence (Tibbetts, 2014). Deterrence works in the modern American criminal justice. For instance, Gibbs (1979) indicates that individuals are deterred by the knowledge of actual punishments that they will receive due to their crimes. Furthermore, Gibbs (2015) elaborates that some legislators were of the opinion that the reinstatement of the death penalty would reduce the rates of murder.

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It does not consider other factors such as criminal associations, individual traits, and inner strains, which plays a significant role in determining punishment for the individuals in committing crimes. It is observed that this theory endeavours to know that whether the activities of crime as well as the victim’s choice, criminals commit the activities on start from rational decisions. The theory also determines that criminals consider different elements before committing crime. They engage in the exchange of ideas before reaching on any final decision. These elements consist of consequences of their crimes, which include revealing their families to problems or death, chances of being arrested, and others elements, which comprises of placement of surveillance systems (Walsh & Hemmens, 2010; Lichbach,

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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 court system should acknowledge the offenders past and realize that the reasons they are committing crimes are not their free will, it is elements in their past that have caused them to act in a deviant manner. Furthermore, Cullen and Johnson (2017) agree by stating, “science has demonstrated that un-chosen individual traits (e.g., temperament, self-control, IQ) and un-chosen social circumstances (e.g., family, school, community) can be

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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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In the case of the death penalty, it has the added bonus in guaranteeing that the person would not offend again. Supporters of harsh punishments argue that the would-be criminal would consider the costs versus the benefits of committing a crime. If the costs outweigh the benefits, then it is assumed that he would stop what he is doing, effectively ‘deterred’. Furthermore, the usage of harsh punishments to effectively deter crime is ethically justified as it prevents more people from falling victim to crime. However it is extremely difficult to judge a punishment’s effectiveness based on its deterrence effect, consequently we must consider other variables that would entail a person to commit a crime.

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I will be explaining through the seven elements of crime whether illegal drug use, prostitution, and gambling fit the elements (Bohm & Haley, 2011). The seven elements of the crime are harm, legality, actus reus, mens rea, causation, concurrence, and punishment. Discuss in detail whether illegal drug use, prostitution, and gambling fit the seven elements of a crime from. Include in your discussion whether these three crimes should be considered mala in se or mala prohibita.

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