Rational Choice

1
Rational Choice

• American culture favors individualism,
  erroneously asserting that success and failure
  are solely the product of a persons own
  constitution.
• Individualism often leads to the belief in people
  being rational, but morally corrupt.
• Rational choice says that people maximize
  benefits and minimize costs to themselves.
• Favors a get-tough approach to crimeMake crime
  cost more

2
Rational Choice

• Deterrence is the product of individualist
  rational choice thinking.
• Deterrence
• Since humans calculate costs versus benefits, you
  have to make punishment level match the
  importance of the crimeto make crime cost more
  than the benefits.
• Dimensions of punishment
• Certainty
• Celerity
• Severity ? Politicians love this one!
• The only one that appears to consistently be
  effective is certainty.

3
Rational Choice
Severity doesnt generally deter!
4
Rational Choice

• Types of Deterrence
• General
• Specific
• Situational Crime Prevention

5
Rational Choice

• General Deterrence
• Punish enough for banned behaviors so that people
  in general will avoid those behaviors.
• Research indicates this approach does not work.
• Juveniles typically do not consider punishments
  before acting.
• Juveniles can be deterred by fear of getting
  caught.
• Most effective is fear of loss of approval of
  family and friends.

6
Rational Choice

• Specific Deterrence
• Punish identified offenders enough so that they
  will not violate rules again.
• Research indicates this approach does not work.
• Incarceration does not reduce recidivism
• Incarceration actually increases criminal
  involvement
• Radical nonintervention
• Warehousing criminals, incapacitation, does keep
  individuals off the streets, but
• systems that produced them may keep producing
  more criminals
• once released, criminal habits may be worse

7
Rational Choice

• Situational Crime Prevention
• Identify situations that make crime more likely,
  and harden and observe the target more.
• To get crime you need
• A suitable target
• Lack of a Capable Guardian
• A Motivated Offender

Address These
8
Getting Away from Rational Choice

• People are Lazy Thinkers
• We should abandon conceptualizing delinquents as
  kids who choose to be bad.
• Human choice-making is constrained by these
  cognitive abilities, among others
• Routine thinking, seeking verification of ideas
• Short-cuts to causality
• Categorical Thinking, philosophical inconsistency
• Change new information to fit pre-set categories
• People must feel like they belong to others
• Bad Memories
• Salient stimuli capture attention
• Obsessed with self/self bias
• Education is partly an effort to overcome many of
  these restrictions, making people become more
  rational.

9
Psychological Bright Spot

• You can train delinquents to avoid crime and
  status offenses by teaching them to think and
  behave more conventionally.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapyhelping the
  irrational
• I call this the stop, drop, and roll! approach
  to delinquency.
• Kids learn to
• Identify problem situations (stop)
• Think through various reaction strategies (drop)
• Proceed with the most conventional behaviors
  (roll)

10
Psychological Bright Spot

• Getting tough cannot deter delinquency.
• Understanding cognitive processes, however, you
  can prevent delinquency.
• Some strategies proven effective
• Develop strong emotional bonds with kids
• Provide clear rules for behavior
• Monitor behavior
• Consistently sanction deviance in an appropriate
  manner
• Model and reinforce conventional behavior
• In other words, foster a conventional mental
  map, create conventional routines.
• You should see consistency with the social
  process theories here!