Criminal Rational Choice Theory And Environmental Criminology

Crime patterns are concentrations of crime or victimization within certain areas, places, individuals, products, or other targets. Understanding how crime and victimization are patterned requires unpacking the circumstances under which crimes occur, especially the places, times, and targets involved. By identifying these key features, environmental criminology suggests that manipulating or changing factors that are associated with criminal events can prevent victimization. Several perspectives, including rational choice theory, crime pattern theory, and routine activity theory, theoretically inform environmental criminology. These theories provide underlying principles used by researchers to recognize the environmental factors affecting criminal …show more content…
From a victimization prevention perspective, understanding how offenders make their decisions to select targets to victimize suggests methods for discouraging criminals from acting and, therefore, preventing victimizations. This theory makes three primary assertions that have implications for crime prevention. First, offenders have goals in mind when they commit crimes and they take into account the potential risks and rewards associated with their behavior. Risks may include considerations such as the target’s level of resistance, the target’s level of protection, or the possible punishments if the offender is caught. The reward, of course, is succeeding in the criminal act. The theory presumes these risks and rewards vary across different types of crime, and that to understand how decisions are made requires thinking about specific offenses. For example, the costs and benefits associated with perpetrating a bank robbery differ from those involved in either a convenience store robbery or robbing an individual on the street. As part of the offender’s decision-making process, he or she considers the setting in which the crime would occur. As an example, a residential burglar searching for a suitable target at night may look for a house with no lights on. This suggests that no one is home, which to a would-be offender implies that perpetrating the crime involves a low risk of being …show more content…
First, all three theories emphasize the importance of criminal opportunities in explaining victimization. Therefore, reducing opportunities correspondingly decreases victimization risks. Second, each assumes that criminals make rational decisions. Even though offenders do not always make the best decisions, supporters of these theories argue they still consider costs and benefits based on available information. For example, a well-protected target is less likely to be victimized because a rational offender will decide that it is too risky or requires too much effort to act. As a result, crime prevention strategies can be developed to convince would-be offenders that criminal behavior is either too risky or not rewarding enough. Third, identifying and understanding crime patterns suggests where, when, and how crime prevention efforts should best be directed. The theories propose that crime patterns exist because opportunities concentrate in specific areas, facilities, or targets. Eliminating opportunities can therefore have a significant preventive impact. Overall, the underlying principle of environmental criminology is that by recognizing these theoretical premises, the environment or setting in which crime occurs can be changed such that criminal behaviors at those locations are