Rational Choice Research Paper

What Starts Criminal Behavior? History shows that through life violence is a cycle within itself. Criminology shows different views on how and why criminal behavior happens. By watching the movie “Boyz in The Hood” we see the crimes take place and show why these events happened. Based off the information from class and from past theories I formulate my own theories of why crime happens.

According to me, people commit crimes because of different reasons. Some people have no control over themselves

As suggested by Helfgott (2008) there are many behavioural theories that have been pondered over as to why people commit crime however no single theory gives us the solution.

When it comes down to it, we all make our own decisions. We weigh the pros and cons to decide if the benefits outweigh the potential punishments. The idea of rational choice theory is that people choose their actions based on the options available and choose the one they most prefer. If their choice is to eat a donut or to not, when they really want to eat it, chances are they will eat it. Once you add in punishment, it gets more complicated. If the person were to be punished for eating it, they will most likely think it through more. Say, it’s a teenager who wants to eat the donut but he knows his father will ground him if he does. This donut is the teen’s favorite kind and he really really wants to eat the donut, but the risk of punishment is there, the teen will weigh the consequences against the benefits. Would he choose a few minutes of a tasty donut and risk being grounded for a week or would he choose to forgo the donut and not get in trouble? The act of having a choice to do something you want to do that also has consequences and causes you to rationally decide if it’s worth it or not is rational choice theory.

No one factor may ever be able to accurately explain why crime occurs. Due to the fact that the factors that influence crime are difficult in nature to understand. In addition, there is an extensive list of factors that may or may not influence the occurrence of crime. There has been a numerous amount of previous research that tries to explain the influences of crime. But many conclude that more than one factor must be present to influence the occurrence of crime.

In Criminology, Prof. Boldt has either talked about or brought up a few dozen theories in just a few weeks. However one theory seems to show up more than the others, and is the more dominant explanation in describing criminal behavior. This concept is referred to as Rational Choice Theory. Over time theories have been produced to explain and help understand what leads to criminal behavior. The reason why people have studied these theories so closely is because of the helpful nature it provides to professionals. It allows them to make informed decisions on treatment methods for offenders or victims. This also helps the professionals enforce policy change if need be. I believe in order to start understanding what leads to criminal behavior,

People reasoning for committing crimes varies, some people are put in a situation when money is short and feel like it is no other way to get by. Another is a mental issues that does not seem to go away. There are many studies and theories on why criminals behave the way they do and how they are able to cope with their problems. Philip Zimbardo, a person who had the same interest in figuring out the theory of crime.

There has always been a fascination with trying to determine what causes an individual to become a criminal? Of course a large part of that fascination has to do with the want to reduce crime, and to determine if there is a way to detect and prevent individuals from committing crime. Determining what causes criminality is still not perfectly clear and likewise, there is still debate as to whether crime is caused biologically, environmentally, or socially. Furthermore, the debate is directly correlated to the notion of 'nurture vs nature'. Over time many researchers have presented various theories pertaining to what causes criminal behavior. There are many theories that either support or oppose the concept of crime being biological rather

Women use more legal drugs, most of which are prescribed by male physicians to keep them calm. Women’s illicit drug use has been increasing rapidly in the 1990s in the world. Homeless women have a high prevalence of risky use of illegal drugs (Upshur et al,. 2013). Homeless women intend to have low self-esteem and low motivation that can result in a high risk of drug and alcohol dependence. Prospective studies have found that a current substance use disorder, or frequent continued consumption of drugs are associated with lower prospects of exiting from homelessness, prolonged episodes of homelessness, and housing instability. Despite the high need, homeless women report limited use of addiction services (Upshur et al,. 2013). Roberston et al, found that 43.5% of homeless adults identified a need for addiction treatment but had not received services, while Wenzel et al, reported only 27.5% of homeless adults with substance use disorder had accessed inpatient or residential treatment in the last year, with even fewer, 5.6%, having any outpatient treatment (Upshur

According to www.merriam-webster.com the term “crime” is defined as: “an illegal act for which someone can be punished by the government”. Some individuals in our society commit some type of crime every day, but why? In this assignment I will try to compile an overall theory as to why individuals commit crimes. While doing my research I came across 10 reasons/factors that can possibly explain why individuals commit crimes. These reasons include: The Prison System, drugs, depression and other social and mental disorders, family conditions, regionalism, T.V. violence, racism, politics, poverty, and overpopulation.

The best theory that is best to clarify criminal conduct is Rational choice theory. This theory was picked specifically in light of the fact that criminal conduct is the same as noncriminal conduct. This has been looked into on account of individuals perpetrated violations, nobody constrains them to do anything that he or she wouldn't like to do yet another reason is they surmise that the reward for the wrongdoing would be more fulfilling to their requirements as opposed to having nothing and remaining out of inconvenience like noncriminal individuals. Conceded there has been a lot of research done to make sense of what drives individuals to carry out wrongdoings, keep on doing the violations and what could really make them stop perpetrate

There are many reasons as to why someone may commit crimes. No two people are exactly alike so I don’t believe there is a “one size fits all” theory of crime. You have to assess people on a case by case basis to really understand why each person commits crime. There may be more than one factor in some person’s case that contributes to why they committed a crime; Factors such as, peer influence, family situations, financial situations, mental disorders, and sometimes religious beliefs or cultural differences. These to me are categories most reasons people commit crimes may fall under.

According to one of rational choice theory’s prominent and more thoughtful contemporary exponents, Peter C. Ordeshook, “four books mark the beginning of modern political theory: Anthony Downs’s An Economic Theory of Democracy (1957), Duncan Black’s Theory of Committees and Elections (1958), William H. Riker’s A Theory of Political Coalitions (1962), and James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock’s The Calculus of Consent (1962). These volumes, along with Kenneth Arrow’s Social Choice and Individual Values (1951), began such a wealth of research that political scientists today have difficulty digesting and synthesizing all but small parts of it. Consequently, the full value of this research often goes

Rational choice theory, also known simply as choice theory, is the assessment of a potential offender to commit a crime. Choice theory is the belief that committing a crime is a rational decision, based on cost benefit analysis. The would-be offender will weigh the costs of committing a particular crime: fines, jail time, and imprisonment versus the benefits: money, status, heightened adrenaline. Depending on which factors out-weigh the other, a criminal will decide to commit or forgo committing a crime. This decision making process makes committing a crime a rational choice. This theory can be used to explain why an offender will decide to commit burglary, robbery, aggravated assault, or murder.

Criminal behavior is something that affects everyone, even if you don’t particularly engage in the act itself. Every time a crime is committed, we often find ourselves wondering what led that person to do that crime. We wonder why they did it because it is something that we could never do, so therefor we cannot fathom the act of engaging in criminal activity. Some people feel that people only engage in it just because they lack the thing that they try to steal or because of their specific background and race. In actuality, there is a link between criminal behavior and the lack of education. However there is also a link between the attainment of education and criminal behavior.