Rational Choice, Deterrence, Incapacitation and Just Desert
In seeking to answer the question, "Why do people engage in deviant
and/or criminal acts?", many researchers, as well as the general
public, have begun to focus on the element of personal choice. An
understanding of personal choice is commonly based in a conception of
rationality or rational choice. These conceptions are rooted in the
analysis of human behavior developed by the early classical theorists,
Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham. The central points of this theory
are: (1) The human being is a rational actor, (2) Rationality involves
an end/means calculation, (3) People (freely) choose all behavior,
both conforming and deviant, based on their rational calculations, (4)
The central element of calculation involves a cost benefit analysis:
Pleasure versus Pain, (5) Choice, with all other conditions equal,
will be directed towards the maximization of individual pleasure, (6)
Choice can be controlled through the perception and understanding of
the potential pain or punishment that will follow an act judged to be
in violation of the social good, the social contract, (7) The state is
responsible for maintaining order and preserving the common good
through a system of laws (this system is the embodiment of the social
contract), (8) The Swiftness, Severity, and Certainty of punishment
are the key elements in understanding a law's ability to control human
behavior. Classical theory, however, dominated thinking about deviance
for only a short time. Positivist research on the external (social,
psychological, and biological) "causes" of crime focused attention on
the factors that...
... middle of paper ...
...ically based control policy (punish
and deter individuals) address the issues that surround the social
construction of crime and deviance?
References and Related Readings
Bureau of Justice Statistics-1989, UNCRIM Gopher, SUNY-Albany, 1994.
Marcus Felson, Crime and Everyday Life: Insight and Implications for
Society, Pine Forge Press, 1994.
Allen Liska, Perspectives on Deviance, 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, 1987.
Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld, Crime and the American Dream,
Wadsworth, 1994.
Stephan Pfohl, Images of Deviance and Social Control: A Sociological
History, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, 1994.
Edwin Pfuhl and Stuart Henry, The Deviance Process, 3rd ed., Aldine de
Gruyter, 1993.
Larry Siegel, Criminology, 4th ed., West publishing, 1992.
URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/200/ratchoc.html
John Dower's War without Mercy describes the ugly racial issues, on both the Western Allies and Japanese sides of the conflict in the Pacific Theater as well as all of Asia before during and after World War II and the consequences of these issues on both military and reconstruction policy in the Pacific. In the United States as well as Great Britain, Dower dose a good job of proving that, "the Japanese were more hated than the Germans before as well as after Pearl Harbor." (8) On this issue, there was no dispute among contemporary observers including the respected scholars and writers as well as the media. During World War II the Japanese are perceived as a race apart, a species apart referred to as apes, but at the same time superhuman. "There was no Japanese counterpart to the "good German" in the popular consciousness of the Western Allies." (8) Dower is not trying to prove how horrible the Japanese are. Instead, he is examining the both sides as he points out, "atrocious behavior occurred on all sides in the Pacific War." (12-13) Dower explores the propaganda of the United States and Japanese conflict to underline the "patterns of a race war," and the portability of racist stereotypes. Dower points out that "as the war years themselves changed over into an era of peace between Japan and the Allied powers, the shrill racial rhetoric of the early 1940s revealed itself to be surprisingly adaptable. Idioms that formerly had denoted the unbridgeable gap between oneself and the enemy proved capable of serving the goals of accommodation as well."(13) "the Japanese also fell back upon theories of "proper place" which has long been used to legitimize inequitable relationships within Japan itself."(9) After...
Pratt, T. C. (2008). Rational Choice theory, criminal control policy, and criminology relevance. Policy essay, 43-52.
The United States launched an operation known as Operation Desert Shield, also known as the Persian Gulf War, in August of 1990 in response to Saddam Hussein’s order to the Iraqi forces to take over Kuwait. President George Herbert Walker Bush made the decision to send American troops to Saudi Arabia to form an international coalition that would eventually turn into an operation known as Operation Desert Storm. The United States Army had not witnessed an event of such international and Homefront importation since the Cold War.
Through the first chapter of this book the focus was primarily on the notion of controlling crime. The best way to describe crime policy used in this chapter is comparing it to a game of ‘heads I win, tails you lose’. This chapter also addresses the causes for decline in America’s
Adler, Patricia A., and Adler Peter. Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context, and Interaction. 6th ed. Belmont: Thomas/Wadsworth, 2009.
There is a common knowledge that capital punishment would prevent people from committing crime. But until now, there has not been any actual statistics or scientific researches that prove the relationship between the capital punishment and the rate of crimes. According to Jack Weil, “criminals, who believe that their chances of going to jail are slight, will in all probability also assume that their chances of being executed are equally slight. Their attitude that crime pays will in no way be altered” (3). Most people commit a crime when they are affected by the influence of drugs, alcohol or even overwhelmed emotions, so they cannot think logically about they would pay back by their lives. Also, when criminal plan to do their crime, they prepare and expect to escape instead of being caught. Some people believe that the threat of severe punishment could bring the crime rates down and that capital punishment is the ultimate crime deterrent. However, in fact, the rate of ...
Crime is an irrelevant concept as it is tied to the formal social control mechanism of the State; deviance is a concept that is owned by sociology thus our study should be the sociology of deviance, rather than criminology
In the Document it talks about Desert Storm and how it happened. More specifically how he went from Vietnam one of America's saddest defects to desert storm a resounding victory. After Vietnam tensions were still high with the war still fresh in the mind. Then Maxwell took over for the army and then he took action. He had supported the GI Bill, along with advertising with the army, using Holywood. At this time women and African-Americans had gotten more reputation in the army.
Young, J. (1981). Thinking seriously about crime: Some models of criminology. In M. Fitzgerald, G. McLennan, & J. Pawson (Eds.), Crime and society: Readings in history and society (pp. 248-309). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
With peace and sanctity of mankind as the primary driver, a set of ethical standards must be established to ensure the governing of the global system. In order for this to occur, general ethical standards should be agreed upon by all sovereign governments. But one might ask, what are these ethical standards? The ethical standards are relative to the method of intervention a nation or international agency may pursue if a nation is believed to be denying basic human rights from its citizens. These basic human rights are to be determined by an international agency such as the United Nations, to be ratified by its member sovereign nations. For this to be possible, these standards must be broad in order to encompass all people without bias
Capital punishment, a topic that is constantly debated, is questioned on whether or not it serves its purpose which is to deter criminals and if it is morally acceptable. It is my goal to evaluate arguments that promote or reject capital punishment and its deterrence factor. It would be beneficial comparing crime statistics for states that uphold and states that abolish capital punishment. Finally, an investigation of criminals facing the death penalty and their thoughts as well as modern prison conditions will provide insight to this debate. Capital punishment could be a great deterrent to crime or it may have no effect at all.
Robert Paper argues that, in a way, suicide terrorism can be a logical choice for the individual carrying out the attack. When contemplating whether or not suicide terrorism can be a logical choice, you must be able to put yourself in the place of the “terrorist”. Whether or not someone is considered a terrorist can be a very subjective view, especially from the viewpoint of the person or group that is being terrorized. This requires the observer to exude empathy.We may look at Osama Bin Laden as a terrorist, but to him, he was doing the work of his “God”. The person considered to be a terrorist could be revered as a martyr in their community; someone who ultimately gave their life to perpetuate a particular faith or ideal. While, being a citizen of a country that has endured many tragedies, both on the homefront and abroad; makes these actions disgust me, there are two sides to view from. This subjectiveness is at the heart of figuring out whether or not this is a logical choice. Exploration of this topic shall lead to a greater understanding of the “how” and “why” terrorists commit these devastating activities, and allow those defending from such attack be able to do so. This would allow further safety in the area of homeland security.
Deterrence theory of crime is a method in which punishment is used to dissuade people from committing crimes. There are two types of deterrence: general and specific. General deterrence is punishment to an individual to stop the society as a whole from committing crimes. In other word, it is using the punishment as an example to “scare” society from precipitating in criminal acts. Under general deterrence, publicity is a major part of deterrence. Crime and their punishments being showing in the media or being told person to person can be used to deter crime. Specific deterrence is punishment to the individual to stop that individual from committing other crimes in the future. This type of deterrence is used to teach the individual a lesson whatever action that participated in. Specific deterrence is founded on a principle called hedonistic calculus meaning, “an assumption that human nature leads people to pursue pleasure and avoid pain” (Brown, Esbensen, & Geis, 2010, p 155).
Hayes, T. A. 2010. Labelling and the Adoption of a Deviant Status. Deviant Behaviour, 31 (3), pp. 282-297.
Punishing the unlawful, undesirable and deviant members of society is an aspect of criminal justice that has experienced a variety of transformations throughout history. Although the concept of retribution has remained a constant (the idea that the law breaker must somehow pay his/her debt to society), the methods used to enforce and achieve that retribution has changed a great deal. The growth and development of society, along with an underlying, perpetual fear of crime, are heavily linked to the use of vastly different forms of punishment that have ranged from public executions, forced labor, penal welfare and popular punitivism over the course of only a few hundred years. Crime constructs us as a society whilst society, simultaneously determines what is criminal. Since society is always changing, how we see crime and criminal behavior is changing, thus the way in which we punish those criminal behaviors changes.