NCJ Number
219816
Journal
Crime Prevention and Community Safety Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2007 Pages: 201-221
Date Published
July 2007
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This paper seeks to extend the notion of rational choice from the individual to the group and suggests the application of situational prevention to a new dimension that of large-scale disorder problems, such as riots.
Abstract
As an open society with democratic governance, the use of force in India to handle crowds will always be highly undesirable and will have to be the last option for police officers. In a democracy, police need to work with the citizens and maintain cordial relations. Consequently, the police leadership needs to pay special attention to preventive techniques and study the theoretical foundations of these methods. The basis of situational crime prevention is the notion of rational choice. The preventive techniques are based on the assumption that a rational offender is unlikely to act if the efforts of committing the crime are greater than the expected rewards. Riots pose serious challenges since they involve vicious mobs violating prohibitory orders, attacking police personnel and indulging in the destruction of property and violence. This paper argues that even though a mob behaves irrationally and indulges in senseless acts of violence and destruction, the individuals comprising the mob are rational and guided by self-interest in their behavior. So, therefore, even in riotous situations, rational choice perspective can be profitably exploited to prevent mayhem. Several cases of handling major riots and group confrontation from different parts of India are described. References