Definition:“Punishment should fit for crime”.

CHOICE THEORIES

RATIONAL CHOICE (law-violating behavior occurs after

offenders weight information on their personal need and situational factors

involved in the difficulty and risk of committing a crime.)

Strategies for controlling crime flow from premise.

1. GENERAL DETTERENCE (people will commit crime and

delinquency if they perceive that the benefits outweigh the risks. Crime is a

function of the severity, certainty, and speed of punishment.)

2. SPECIFIC DEDERENCE ( if punishment is severe enough,

criminal will not repeat their illegal act.)

3. INCAPACITATION (Keeping known criminals out of circulation will

reduce crime rate.)

CONCEPTS OF

RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY

• Law violating behavior is product of careful thought and planning.

• Offender choose crime after both personal and situational factors.

• Before deciding to commit a crime the reasoning criminal evaluates risk of

• apprehension,

• seriousness of expected punishment,

• the potential value of the criminal enterprise,

• his/her ability to succeed,

• the need of criminal gain.

OFFENCE & OFFENDER

SPECIFIC CRIME

OFFENCE

SPECIFIC

CRIME:

OFFENDR

SPECIFIC

CRIME:

Offender react selectively to the characteristics of an individual criminal act.

E.g. the decision to commit a burglary.

To commit crime individuals must decide whether they have the personal needs skills, and nuts and bolts to commit a crime.

STRUCTING CRIMINALITYEconomic need/Opportunity: People commit crime because they need money or Misled about financial reward They know the people who are quite successful at crime.

Evaluating personal traits and experiences: Career criminals may learn the limitation of their powers. They know when to take chance and when to be cautious. Experienced criminals may turn away from a life of crime

when they believe that risk of crime is greater then any potential profit.

Criminal is more impulsive and have less self controlled. Typically they are under stress and facing serious personal

problem

Criminal enterprises: They learn techniques to help them avoid detection while

making their own illegal profit.

STRUCTURING CRIME

Choosing the place of crime

Criminal carefully choose where thy will commit crime.

Choosing target

Criminals locate there target in such a way

IS CRIME RATIONAL?

IS THEFT

RATIONAL?

IS DRUG USE

RATIONALS

Crimes are the product of careful risk related

assignment including environmental, social,

and structural factors.

Target selection seem highly rational.

Criminal believe that drug will provide them

fun, exciting and thrilling experience.

They choose what they consider safe sites to

buy and sell drugs. Their entry into

substance abuse is facilitated by their

perception,

Research seems to indicate from it onset drug

use is controlled by rational decision making.

Drug dealers show signs of rationality and

cunning in their daily activities

IS CRIME RATIONAL?

Can violence

be rational?

Market related robberies emerge from disputes

involving partners in trade, rivals, or generalized

predators.

Status-based violations involve encounters in

which the robber’s essential character or value

have been changed.

Personalistic violations floe from indicates in

which the robber’s autonomy or sense of value has

been jeopardized.

Robbery in this instance is an instrument

used to settle score, display dominance, and stifle

potential rivals. Jacobs and Wright conclude

retaliation certainly is rational in the sense that

actor who lack legitimate access to the law and

rize respect above everything else will often

choose to resolve their grievances through a rough

and ready brand of self-help.

SITUATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION

To reduce criminal activity public official must be aware of the characteristics of the sites and situation that are conductive for crime, the things that people toward these and what equips people to take the advantage of the criminal opportunities offered by these sites and situations and what constitute the immediate criminal actions.

This approach was popularized in the united state in early 19thcenturies by Oscar Newman. Who coined the term defaceable space the idea is that crime can be prevented or displaced through the use of residential design that reduce criminal opportunities such as well-lit-housing projects that maximize surveillance.

CRIME PREVENTION STRATEGIES

Increase the afford needed to commit crime

Increase the risk of committing crime

Reduce rewards of crime

Induce gilt and increase shame

Deduce provocation

Remove excuses

COSTS OF SITUATIONAL CRIME

PREVENTION

Hidden Benefits:

Diffusion

Occurs when efforts to prevent one crime

unintentionally prevents another

When crime control efforts in one locale reduce crime

in other non-target areas

Discouragement:

Occurs when crime control efforts targeting a particular

locale help reduce crime in surrounding areas and

populations

BENEFITS OF SITUATIONAL

CRIME PREVENTION

Hidden Costs:

Displacement

Crime is not prevented but simply re-directed, deflected, or displaced to a more vulnerable area

Extinction:

Phenomenon in which crime reduction programs may produce short-term positive effects but criminals adjust to new conditions

Dismantling of alarms

Trying new offenses previously avoided

Replacement:

an effect that occur when criminal try new offences they had previously avoided because situational prevention program neutralized their program choice.

1. GENERAL DETERANCE

A crime control policy that depends on the fear of

penalties, convincing the potential law violator that

the pains associated with crime out weigh its benefit.

Theory holds the greater the severity, certainty, and

speed of legal sanctions, the lower crime rate.

Theory not only actual chance of punishment but also

the perception that punishment will be forth coming,

influences criminality.

CERTAINTY OF PUNISHMENT

If people believe their criminal transgressions will almost

certainly result in punishment, then only truly irrational

will commit crime.

research shows a direct relation ship between crime rate

and certainty of punishment.

Increasing the number of police on street should cut the

crime rate.

Police officers should active, aggressive and fighter.

Improving response time and increasing number of patrol

cars that response one crime.

SEVERRITY OF PUNISHMENT

Threat of severe punishment should also bring the crime rate down.

Little consensus that strict punishment alone can reduce criminal activities.

Certainty of punishment has greater deterrent effect then its severity.

Fear of death penalty should significantly reduce crime rate.

CRITIQUE: Some experts believe that the purpose

of the law and justice system is to create a threat system.

Rationality

System

effectiveness

Criminals can be desperate people and commit crime

because of no alternative.

Criminal may be suffering from personality disorder

Threat of punishment involve not only its severity but

also its certainty and speed.

Not every crime can be discouraged, nor is every

criminal deterrent. Research shows that deterrent

measure may be have greater impact on some people

and leaser effect on other.

SPECIFIC DETERRENCE

The theory of specific deterrence holds that criminal sanction should be so powerful that known criminals will never repeat their criminal acts.

In principles, punishments works when a connection can be established between the planned action and memories of its consequence if these recollection are adequately intense ,the action is unlikely to occur again

Incarcetion

confinement in jail or prison.

Recidivism

repletion of criminal behavior.

INCAPACITATION

Keeping known criminal out of circulation will reduce crime rates.

There is little evidence that incapacitating criminals deters them from future criminality

Stable crime rates may be controlled by:

The size of the teenage population

The threat of mandatory sentences

Economy

Gun laws

The end of the crack epidemic

The implementation of aggressive policing strategies

INCAPACITATION

Research focus:

Prison population and crime rate

Sentence length and crime