First, we must make the distinction between crimes of passion and passionate crimes. Crimes of passion are normally those crimes committed as a result of some sudden rage towards an incident involving immediate conflict. Defendants have used this defense after assaults or murders claiming “temporary insanity”. With these type crimes it is assumed that the person committing loses their ability of control. The main point of interest when using these defenses is the crime is said not to be premeditated. Passionate crimes, on the other hand, would be premeditated. These would imply calculated plan of attack. Sexual crimes are normally associated with passionate crimes because they somehow involve strong emotions. Other examples or forms of passionate crimes could be related to revenge. As opposed to a robbery where someone’s action to rob for personal gain, the passionate crime would be committed by one with some emotional motive. In this response to the question, I will define a passionate crime as one that is sexually motivated When applying the Rational Theory approach to passionate crimes it would be said that the person has a choice to act on …show more content…
This work would address the behavior of choice related to the sex offender. The choices that we make are not just a last minute decision or off the cuff action. We as individuals are guided in our decision making by our background. When we use the term background it is to mean all events and experiences leading up to this point in our life. These events and experiences have a great impact on our future actions and choices. The sex offender makes the decision to commit in line with the rational theory concept, however we should not leave it at that without examining how do we prevent, intervene, and explain why they choice to commit. Cornish and Clarke considers other theories dealing with crime to their
Holmes and Holmes developed this typology based on various characteristics of the crime scenes and the victims themselves of 110 interviews of selected offenders and serial murders (Canter & Wentink, 2004). David Canter and Natalia Wentink conducted an empirical test of this typology and developed several criticisms to their work. Their empirical test concluded that the features described for each category tend to co-occur within each other. For example, the characteristics of a lust killer include a controlled crime scene, evidence of torture, the body being moved, a specific type of victim, no weapon left at the crime scene, and rape; all of these features are also included for the thrill killer. This makes it difficult to categorize these
According to the text, Rational Choice Theory is comprised of two main thoughts, and they are, although people consider and are fully aware of the repercussion of the crimes they are about to commit, they proceed with the act, the second thought is that people will chose to commit a crime if they believe the benefit is greater. (Vito, 2007). In an article titled “Choosing White Color Crimes”, the rational choice theory has always been the acceptable method of interpreting and sustaining programs that help to combat crime (Shover, n.d.). Criminologists, Derek Cornish and Ronald Clark, clarify the two categories of the decision making process, the first one being criminal involvement, and the second one being criminal event.
Dalia Judovitz’s article mentions the sign of passion in the novel. According to the article, she says:
...y theory, affirms that in order for a crime to be committed, three specific specifications must be involved. These specifications are that there must be a suitable target, a motivated offender, and the absence of a capable guardian. The purpose of this theory is to show that the more criminal behavior in their everyday lifestyle, the higher the likelihood that a person will commit criminal activity.
Why those who commit crime, do what they do. One theory that may be relatable in the Simpson murder trial is rational choice theory or RCT. rational choice theory states that criminals make a rational, conscious, and at least partially informed choice to commit a crime. When criminals think that the benefit of committing the crime will outweigh the cost if they get caught, they make a choice to commit said crime. There are two varieties of rational choice theory. One, situational choice theory, which is an extension of rational choice theory and two, routine activities theory or RAT, which states that the daily routine or patterns in ones’ activities make it much easier for an individual to become a victim of crime. The theory is, crime is more likely to happen when a criminal and their victim come together in the absence of authority (Schmalleger). A situation made easier to come by when the criminal knows the victim’s daily routines or patterns. In regard to the O.J. Simpson trial, this would have been a task easily accomplished. As the victim’s ex-husband and someone who was knowledgeable of Nicole Brown Simpsons daily routine it would have been extremely easy for Simpson to place her in a specific place at a specific time. Unfortunately for Ronald Goldman, he happened to be returning a pair of sunglasses at that time, and became a victim
Rational Choice Theory - Rational choice theory, as defined by the textbook, is "A perspective on crime causation that holds that criminality is the result of conscious choice. Rational choice theory predicts that individuals will choose to commit crime when the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs of disobeying the law" (Schmalleger 76). It is an economic principle that assumes that individuals always make prudent and logical decisions that provide them with the greatest benefits or satisfaction and that are in their highest self-interest. It should also be noted that most mainstream economic assumptions and theories are based on rational choice theory. According to the lawdictionary.org, rational choice theory "attempts to explain social phenomenon in terms of how self-interested individuals make choices under the influence of their preferences. All parties try to maximize their advantage, and to minimize their disadvantages" (lawdictionary.org). An example of rational choice theory would be a person stealing money from a company that they work for, with the intent of having the benefit of getting rich at no cost. The person believes that he or she will not get caught, thus not having to pay any costs, making it a rational decision or choice in their
Based on the RCT criminals are thought to make a conscious rational decision before committing crime, they are thought to weight the benefits and costs of committing or not committing the crime. By this method criminals often decide that robbing a bank and possibly going to jail is a better alternative to staying at home and doing nothing when they have just ten days to pay their rent or move and live on the streets. The RCT assumes that all people are capable of making good conscious choices, which it can be strongly argued that many people lack the mental capacity to make a rational decision. It was the rising crime rates of the 70's and 80's that turned people away from other theories such as the classical and neo-classical and onto the RCT which was founded in the late 70's to the early 80's. (Hayward, 2007, p. 234) Under the RCT are the RAT and SCT which will both be explained better later on.
A primary motivation for the hedonistic killer is sexual, killing in hopes of achieving arousal; often partaking in intimate acts such as necrophilia, rape and cannibalism.
A wise man once said “Man is only great when he acts from passion.” When you hear the word passion, the first thing that might come to your mind is something related to love, and you’re not entirely wrong. According to Merriam- Webster’s dictionary, passion is defined as a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something or a strong feeling (such as anger) that causes you to act in a dangerous way. All in all, it is a strong feeling, be it happiness, sadness, anger or liberality. You can be passionate about many things such as love, sports, food, or intimacy. However, it can also mean having a strong yearning for something.
Sex offenders have been a serious problem for our legal system at all levels, not to mention those who have been their victims. There are 43,000 inmates in prison for sexual offenses while each year in this country over 510,000 children are sexually assaulted(Oakes 99). The latter statistic, in its context, does not convey the severity of the situation. Each year 510,000 children have their childhood's destroyed, possibly on more than one occasion, and are faced with dealing with the assault for the rest of their lives. Sadly, many of those assaults are perpetrated by people who have already been through the correctional system only to victimize again. Sex offenders, as a class of criminals, are nine times more likely to repeat their crimes(Oakes 99). This presents a
Personal choice to commit a crime shows the person’s ability to rationalize; indicating they are knowledgeable that the act is illegal, and those consequences can ensue, According to (e.g.. TRAVIS HIRSCHI, 1986) he stated that, because rational choice theory assumed that people are free to choose their course of action, people consider first their own profit or pleasure, which is a personal choice to commit a crime. An example could be a mother of an infant who is in desperate need of milk for her new born. She decides to steal formula from the supermarket for her new born. Because of her personal choice, she decided that committing a crime was a better option than her infant going hungry despite the consequence of theft.
It is noticed that rational choice theory is a neo-classical economic plan that gives a hypothetical clarification for how people make choices when confronted with decisions. Moreover, this theory contends that an individual decides how an individual will act by adjusting the expenses and advantages of their choices. Due to its elegant clarification, the RCT has been broadly connected to the investigation of individual, social, and monetary practices in numerous settings. Knapp and Ferrante (2012) stated that adopted a rational choice viewpoint in his financial way to deal with wrongdoing and contended that a criminal augments their expected benefit from an illegal movement in excess of the anticipated expense of discipline.
...theories as to why people do what they do, especially committing crimes. The two popular ones are antisocial personality theory and social structure theory. Out of these two the one that makes most sense is antisocial personality theory. The majority of these people are diagnosed as a psychopath and they have brain amoralities which is causing them to commit crimes. This is a serious issue and most people will not admit that they have a mental disorder or a problem. There will be many theories, researches and arguments as to why people commit crime; criminology is a never ending studying on people and their actions.
Theory is an important part of discovering and understanding why people commit crime. It is difficult to understand how a prejudice or bias towards someone can be linked to criminal behavior. The general theory of crime coined by Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson can be applied to hate crime. The general theory of crime explains that people are born pre-disposed to crime and that they have natural tendencies to commit crime (Tibbetts, 2015, p 161). The only difference between those who are criminals and non-criminals would be their self-control (Tibbetts, 2015, p 161). Self-control is a key component to the general theory of crime. Not everyone acts on his or her thoughts of someone criminally, or even at all. The difference between people who do not choose to commit crime, would be their difference in self-control. People who commit crime have low self-control, and people who are law-abiding citizens have high self-control.
5). The classical school of thought focuses on free will as the guiding force behind why people commit crime. Under this theory human beings are all deemed to be free thinking spirits and a bit hedonistic. In order to study and observe the causes of crime the classical theory suggests that criminologist should follow a path of analytic