Rational Choice, Routine Activities and Situational Crime Prevention

Abstract

Notions of rational decision making play a central but often implicit role in criminological explanations. Most commonly associated with opportunity theories, situational crime prevention and routine activities theory, rational choice is widely used by administrative and conservative criminologists interested in developing practical, if not pragmatic, ways of reducing or preventing crime. The notion of the rational actor has its roots in classical criminology, which aimed to develop a system of punishment in which the gain from crime would be outweighed by the severity of the sanction, and as such it would deter any rational person. Classicism was characterised by a focus on the act rather than the actor and was less concerned with the social and economic causes of crime than with controlling human ‘passions’ (Beccaria 1963).KeywordsRational ChoiceRoutine ActivityRational Choice TheoryRoutine Activity TheorySuicide BomberThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.