The Criminological Theories Of Deterrence And The Correctional Theory

The correctional theory of my choice is deterrence. The reason I believe this theory to be the most accurate is because it works on the justice aspect of the crime, but also plans on deterring crime. Out of all the theories I have learned about in class, deterrence is one of the only ones that pays attention two both of these perspectives. There is two different forms of deterrence. The first one is called general deterrence which has the goal of scaring society into not committing crime. This is the part of the theory that helps deter crime. The way this works is by arresting someone and giving them a harsher sentence so the next person who has thoughts of committing that crime can second guess their choices. When we arrest a small portion of offenders it can be beneficial because they are living proof of the consequences that possible offenders can reevaluate (Cullen and Jonson 70). The second kind of deterrence is specific deterrence which targets offenders and scares them into not wanting to return to prison. This part of the theory strives to discourage recidivism and touches more on the justice part. In order to scare of an offender he must be given a

The criminological theory behind deterrence is rational choice theory which assumes that offenders and regular citizens are the same but offenders commit crimes because of the circumstances they are put in. So, it is expected that any logical person would also commit that crime if put in that situation. Another important thing to note is the certainty and severity of crime. Certainty of a crime is how likely a punishment comes from a criminal offense. Severity of a crime is at what level the punishment it will be registered. When it comes to these two concepts certainty is the most important because a person usually does not worry about the severity of a crime but the thought of getting