Deterrence and Rational Choice Theories

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Deterrence and Rational Choice Theories
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Medieval Criminal Justice

• Trial by ordeal
• Forced confessions
• Severe public punishment
• Burning (hell on earth)
• Mutilation (body subordinate to soul)
• Ritual of a thousand deaths

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A Reform Movement

• The Enlightenment
• Faith in rationality, social contract theory
• Depart from supernatural theory
• The Classical School of criminology is born
• Assumptions about human nature
• Rational, autonomous, hedonistic, calculating

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A Theory of Deterrence

• On Crimes and Punishment, Beccaria (1764)
• Punishment protects the social contract
• Punishment should fit the crime, no more
• Underlying theory
• Prevention through deterrence is the primary
  justification for punishment
• Condemned by the Catholic Church

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Principles of Deterrence

• To deter, punishment should be
• Certain
• To increase fear of consequences
• Swift
• To make association with punishment
• Severe enough to outweigh the pleasure of crime
• Any more is tyrannical, inefficient

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Elaborations of Deterrence

• Specific v. general
• Punishment v. non-punishment
• Absolute v. restrictive
• Formal v. informal sanctions

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Specific v. General Deterrence
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Punishment/Non-Punishment Stafford and Warr (1993)

• Personal experience with punishment
• Personal experience avoiding punishment
• Vicarious experience with punishment
• Vicarious experience avoiding punishment
• Determines the deterrent effect

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Absolute v. Restrictive Deterrence

• Absolute deterrence
• Abstention
• Restrictive deterrence
• Less frequent
• Less severe
• Displacement

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Empirical Research

• There is moderate support for certainty, little
  to none for severity
• Why does certainty seem to work better than
  severity? What does this tell us about how
  offenders think?

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Formal v. Informal Sanctions

• Informal unofficial punishment
• Disapproval from significant others
• Feelings of remorse, guilt, shame
• Expands the range of negative consequence
• Informal sanctions enhance formal sanctions
• But not for everyone, why?

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In and Out and Back In Favor

• Deterrence theory fell out of favor in the 1800s,
  replaced by positivism
• Deterrence reemerged in the late 1960s as a
  rationale for punishment
• Coincided with a renewed emphasis on offender
  deterrence and retribution within the criminal
  justice system

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Practical Limits of Deterrence

• Penalties often learned after arrest
• Underestimate risk of being caught
• Clearance rates are generally low
• Crime displacement may occur
• Rational abilities may be impaired
• Drugs, alcohol, passion, mental disorder
• Some people have little to lose

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From Deterrenceto Rational Choice

• Deterrence theory focuses on the effect of
  punishment on criminal choices
• Rational choice theory focuses on the effect of
  opportunity on criminal choices

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Rational Choice Theory

• Crime benefits the offender
• Crime brings pleasure
• Peoples rationality is bounded
• We gather, store, use information imperfectly
• We tend to focus on immediate gains, not
  long-term costs
• Offenders focus on situational opportunities
• Criminals are opportunistic

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Rational Motivationsfor Crime

• To obtain something
• To obtain pleasure
• To obtain sex
• To obtain peer approval
• To prove toughness
• To escape negative or unwanted situations
• To assert dominance or get ones way in a dispute
• To settle a grievance, revenge

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Rational Choices?

• A man beats his wife during an argument
• A father rapes his stepdaughter
• A man drives home drunk from a bar

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Crimes that are not rational?
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Cheating on Exams

• How would we control cheating using a rational
  choice perspective?
• Assumptions about cheating
• Interventions to prevent cheating

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Assessment of Choice Theory

• Opportunity rather than punishment
• Offenders tend to ignore long-term costs
• Situational factors rather than enduring
  motivational factors
• Assume the presence of criminal motivation
• Focus on offenders assessments of their
  immediate situations

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Implications for Policy

• Situational crime prevention
• Reduce crime by blocking opportunities
• Consistent with the CJ emphasis on responsibility
  and punishment
• All crime is based at least in part on a choice
• Attempt to make criminal choices less attractive
  by reducing opportunities

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Is there a place for morality in rational choice
theory?