Pros And Cons Of Rational Choice

Rational choice theory is predicated on the idea that crime is a matter of choice in which a potential criminal weighs the cost of committing an act against the potential benefits that might be gained (Siegel, 2011, p. 84). James Q. Wilson expands on this decision in his book Thinking About Crime, stating that “people who are likely to commit crime are unafraid of breaking the law

The way that we deal with criminals today is center and established based on how Cesare Beccaria defined and stated it. Who is Cesare Beccaria? Cesare Beccaria is an Italian scholar born in Milan, Lombardy, Italy on Saturday March 14, 1738. He died at the age of 56 in the same city on Friday, November 28, 1794. Cesare Beccaria was an Italian criminologist, a jurist, a philosopher, and a politician who is widely considered as the most talented jurist [3] and one of the greatest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment. Recognized to be one of the fathers of classical criminal theory and modern penology, he is well remembered for his writings on “On Crimes and Punishments” written in 1764, which condemned torture and the death penalty, and was a founding work in the field of penology and the Classical school of criminology by promoting criminal justice. (citation)

According to Paternoster (2010), the majority of Beccaria’s original deterrence ideals concluded that self-interest to commit an offense could be stopped by legal punishments that are definite, relational, and immediate. Paternoster (2010), determined that Beccaria provided the rational authority with applied strategies to make legal systems more cogent and effective. However, according to Paternoster (2010), Beccaria fell short in providing a developed theory of crime or criminal conduct; he also failed to provide a theory of behavior other than the conception that offenses are motivated by self-interest.

Beccaria is known for being the founder of the Classical School. He wrote An Essay on Crimes and Punishment that was based on transforming punishment to corrections. He proposed reorientation of criminal laws toward more humanistic goals. On page thirteen of our textbook it shows the four of his newer ideas that were incorporated into the French Code of Criminal Procedures and in the French penal Code.

Cesare Beccaria is the “Father of Classical Criminology” and justified punishment on the principle of utility. Beccaria focused on reforming the Criminal Justice System and believed that punishment should be for the better good for society, as well as the individual, and deter others from committing crime and prevent criminals from recommitting crime. He believes effective punishment must certain, swift, and severe to get the desired effect on society and the offender (Robert, Cullen, and Ball 2015). He is also the author of his book Of Crime and Punishment, which discussed his philosophy on the purposes

My example of the rational choice theory of today is the mexican drug controls of December 2011. The drug trafficking organization in Mexico was highly rational, self-interested actors seeked to maximize profit.

The concepts of the rational choice theory. Within the rational choice theory you have subcategories. General deterrence, specific deterrence, and Incapacitation. General deterrence is the idea that crime can be controlled by increasing the real or perceived threat of punishment. According to the general deterrence theory not only is the likely hood of punishment a deterrent but also the sentence will be harsh. This should in theory lessen criminal activity. So basically the certainty of punishment combined with the swiftness and severity of punishment will be the contributing factors of reducing crime rates.

Cesare Beccaria is known as the father of deterrence theory. He suggested that there were three characteristics of punishment that make a significant difference in whether an individual would decide to make the decision to commit a crime. The three characteristics he suggested were swiftness, certainty, and severity. Beccaria said there were two reasons why swiftness of punishment was important. One reason was because there were some offenders spending more years awaiting trial than they would spend for their sentence. He said the faster the offender gets punished for the crime that was committed, the more useful it would be. The second reason he emphasized a swift sentencing was related to deterrence. If people are awaiting their trial for a

Cesare Beccaria published the well-known book On Crimes and Punishments in 1764. Beccaria’s thoughts are commonly referred to as the classical theory. (Shoemaker, 2009, p. 64-65) The work in On Crimes and Punishments inspired multitudes of criminal philosophers two in particular; Locke and Hume. These two believed that, “human nature was predicated upon the search for pleasure and the avoidance of pain, and that human action was consequently organized around calculative strategies aimed at utility maximization.”(Hayward, 2007, p. 233) This thought justification is how those who believe in the Rational Choice Theory get further away from the social issues that may affect the commission of crimes and try to keep it focused on the individual desires of pleasure and avoidance of pain. This thought process may also be in part to the societal want of the juvenile delinquent’s behavior to be solely their fault based on an economic standpoint because if it is individual fault society does not need to fund programs to fix it. As stated in the book The Reasoning Criminal: Rational Choice Perspectives on Offending, “… a rational choice perspective on criminal behavior- was intended to locate criminological findings within a framework particularly suitable for thinking about policy relevant research.” (Cornish & Clarke, 2014, p. 1) That is to say that yes, many philosophers may truly believe in Choice Theory but some were probably motivated more by economic

By contrast, rational choice theory does not apply to certain offenses such as, involuntarily manslaughter or unintentional assaults that delinquents are less likely to consider about the possible benefits. For example, involuntarily manslaughter can occur when a delinquent is intoxicated and accidentally ran over a pedestrian. Certainly, this accident is irresponsible behavior, but the adolescent is not rationally outweighing the consequences and the benefit; thus, the rational choice theory would not apply to this offense. Unintentional assaults may occur if kids feel threatened by their friends, family, or peers and decided to attack them in order to protect themselves or their love ones. In this scenario, adolescents are not motivated by

Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) is probably most well known as the founding father of the school of classical criminology. He protested against the current legal system and pushed for those in power to see that individuals are rational beings and deserve rational repercussions. In his most popular work; Essay on Crimes and Punishments, he protested against the cruel punishments and suggested that they must only be equal to that of the crime itself and revolutionised the criminal justice system with his ideals on how to make the most effective punishment, without maximum damage of the individual. He believed that “Punishment is only justified to the extent that the offender has infringed the rights of others or injured the public good.” (Newburn, 2013) Although Beccaria viewed crime as an act of free-will and rational choice he did see that some individuals were pre-rational (meaning they were unable to be rational), for example children and also that there are sub-rational people (individuals with some rationality but not a full rational mind), this for example can be people with mental afflictions or diseases. Moreover he did not see that there can be a cause for crime which is due to situational problems, i.e. a big change in a person’s life which can cause them to commit crime, like death, financial problems, and birth of a child, family altercations and much more. Although Beccaria was not always right with his beliefs he was the

The Classical School of Criminology was developed by two utilitarian philosophers, Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham during the early 17th century. The Classical School of Criminology is an important theory in the framework of criminal behavior, with principle themes that include: criminal acts are of individuals free will and rational deliberation, calculating, and hedonistic beings. Criminals make a rational choice and choose criminal acts due to maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. As well as minimizing crime, the would be offender must be convinced that the likely punishment for the crime would be swift, certain and proportionately (Paternoster & Bachman, 2001, p. 11).

It is better to try and prevent crimes than it is to punish them, this is achieved by good legislation which guides men to their greatest, or least unhappiness possible (Beccaria, 1767). As mentioned previously, Beccaria’s utilitarian ideology has shaped the justice system in western societies for many decades. Therefore, Beccaria can be described as a very influential thinker. Without his contribution we could still have a system of capital punishment, and that is a worrying thought. However, we now seem fixed with utilitarian justice. It may be argued that it is now time to move towards restorative justice. There are also those such as Tullock (1974), who argue for a return to harsher sentencing. Some states in the US still consider the death penalty to be a legitimate punishment. So it can be said that Beccaria is undoubtedly a key thinker in criminology, but as with all key thinkers he is not without his critics.

Moreover, as we discussed in class rational theory allows lawmakers to control crime. The idea is that if lawmakers get tougher on punishments criminals will choose not to get involve in criminal acts because the outcome doesn’t weight the risk. This might influence people to give think more before they commit a crime. However, I believe this does not work for everybody because some criminal behaviors are driven by biological and environmental factors. So, in this case, even though the criminal knows the punishment is harsh she/he can not think rational because the outside factors are putting them to act out of normal.

Rational choice theory states that the person will make sensible and reasonable decisions that will benefit or gratify their interest; therefore the juvenile will choose a behavior that will encourage them to either avoid pain while seeking pleasure. It gives insight as to why the juvenile offender committed a certain crime, as we have learned crimes are committed because the offender feels a sense of reward, it was easy, thrill seeking and fun. So the juvenile is also rational and their behavior can be curtailed or adapted with the punishment of fear (Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2013)