respond to the following 2 discussion posts
1 – Can the rational choice theory explain all crimes? After reading chapter thirteen, I do not think rational choice theory can properly explain all crimes. Rational theory suggest that crime is a system of a decision making model. The subject who is a potential offender will weigh the benefits and cost of the criminal act they are intending to commit. An example of this would be a white collar crime. I am a financial advisor for a major banking corporation and I have many clients. I have access and control to all of their personal and financial information. I then surreptitiously embezzle money from all of my clients in order to maintain my exuberant and luxuriant lifestyle. When I made the choice to embezzle, I thought about the different options to gain wealth and personal benefit and ultimately the benefit of obtaining money outweighed the chance of me being caught for embezzlement by law enforcement.
An example which combats rational choice would be, after a long day of work you come home around nine in the evening. As you open the door, you hear your wife screaming and crying, as you run towards the sounds of screaming and open your master bedroom door, you see an unknown man raping your wife. Immediately you go and stop the horrible act and save your wife. You then are enraged and then beat the rapist to death for his actions. With the said example, there was no decision making model applied at all. There was no risk or reward of personal benefit when beating a rapist to death. Essentially, with the rapist getting caught and beaten to death is simply poetic justice.
Another example of a crime which is not a product of rational choice is when a person murders someone they do not even know. In this example how can this align with rational theory, there is no cost and benefits to help the offender make a rational choice when killing a person they do not know. There have been multiple serial killers throughout history and some have admitted to killing because its fun. There was no evidence where the killer killed to help support their life style and or obtain wealth. In the end, I think rational theory fits the explanations of some crimes such as embezzlement, robbery, burglary, identify theft, fraud, and theft.
2 – I do not believe that the rational choice theory is a viable option to explain all crimes. The rational choice theory is built around the idea that an offender assesses their crime on a conscious or subconscious mental level and determines if the benefits to be reaped from committing the crime outweigh the potential consequences.
An example of this would be a person who is making the decision to commit a larceny. On some level, the offender is assessing whether their potential gain from successfully completing the larceny would be advantageous enough to outweigh the consequences attached to getting caught.
I believe that for many crimes, this rational choice theory can be applicable. My primary argument against this theory though, is that there are too many crimes that are committed in the heat of passion for it to be applicable. For example, when examining violent crimes such as assault or murder, there are many situations where it could be argued that no level of mental processing occurred before acting. In situations where a person is provoked on the spot to commit the crime, it could be argued that they did not have the time necessary to fully engage in the thought process attached to rational choice theory. The idea of “heat of passion” is so well understood and accepted that it is actually written into laws regarding different levels of murder. In a situation where “heat of passion” can be articulated to a court of law, it can be the difference between an offender being charged with Murder 1 or Manslaughter.
Also, it is written into the theory that those who are under the influence are incapable of processing an event in a rational manner to conform to the “cost-benefit” formula. As a result, this statement on its own eliminates an entire branch of crimes that are solely based around being under the influence.
