Do Choice Theories Provide a Valid Explanation for Violent Crime?

Criminal Law

Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Do choice theories provide a valid explanation for violent crime?........................................................2
Overview of the topic........................................................................................................................2
Body......................................................................................................................................................4
Punishment cost................................................................................................................................4
Economic cost....................................................................................................................................4
Other cost..........................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Rational choice theory is referred to as the set of ideas and concepts about the relationship
between the choices and preferences of an individual that he or she makes. The theory
assumes that human beings are self-interested and rational who are affected by the outcomes
of their actions. The theory states that criminal behavior does not differ from the non-criminal
behavior which means an individual intentionally commit a crime (Conklin, 2013). The main
reason for committing a crime is that people think that it would be less costly and more
rewarding in comparison to non-criminal behavior. The theory explains that the offenders are
not being compelled to committing crime because of certain extraordinary motivation. The
offenders do not possess different personalities in comparison to non-offenders and they are
also not socialized into the cultural system or criminal belief whose norms need crime. The
theory clearly explains that both non-criminal offenders and criminal offenders carry out their
actions on the basis of the benefits and costs associated with the intended action.
Research question
Do choice theories provide a valid explanation for violent crime?
Overview of the topic
The rational choice theory assists to provide a valid explanation for violent crime because
people commit crimes on the basis of their own choice. The theory is very much important to
understand because it provides explanations and assists to understand the criminal behavior
of an individual. The theory assumes that the choice of committing a crime by an individual
is being influenced by the factors that affect their decisions of behaving in an ethical manner.
Both law-abiding and law-violating behaviors show the desire for maximizing utility.
However, the choices are influenced by the attitudes toward time discounting and risk and
estimates of the availability, benefits, and costs of illegal opportunities. The preferences of
people are being influenced by the expected benefits from the results in relation to the costs.
The potential benefits are social, emotional and monetary and the costs are an opportunity,
sunk, external as well as social, emotional and monetary. Preferences are considered to be
stable and it does not change during the decision-making process but can be altered when
there is the availability of new information. An individual’s assessment of the costs and
benefits of results are influenced by the collected information. People prefer to collect all the
information before making any decision and choices are made on the basis of incomplete
information (Larry, 2016).
Inappropriate knowledge and information misguide an individual and they move towards the
wrong path. The preferences of individuals are also being influenced from time to time. The
time preferences are not considered to be fixed because other factors also influence decisions
such as the current level of the valued result of an individual. The preferences are also being
affected by the attitudes towards uncertainty and risk. The behavior is rational or not can be
understood by examining or making assumptions about the preferences, collected
information, risk-taking ability and time preference of an individual. The rational choices
made by an individual are due to the different behavior of an individual. The decisions can be
influenced negatively by the sudden change or intense emotion of an individual. Thus, the
rational choice theory is referred to as the consistency between the choices and preferences of
an individual (Manzo, 2013). The theory is being applied to violent crimes carried out by an
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