Conscience, Opportunity, Rational Choice, and Crime (From Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 5, P 305-322, 1993, Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, eds. - See NCJ-159998)

• NCJ Number: 160012
• Author(s): G Trasler
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter argues that rational choice theory needs to be supplemented by dispositional theory in order to account completely for the mechanisms involved in criminality or the decision to commit or refrain from committing certain crimes.

Abstract

The author examines the connections between conscience and rational choice, relying on the notion of bounded rationality, the concept of akratic behavior, and a recent study of the nature of normative commitment to obey the law. Rational choice theory is primarily concerned with explaining the conditions under which an individual who is not in principle averse to criminal conduct will respond to opportunities to gratify his needs. Dispositional theories are concerned with those mechanisms, i.e., conscience, that cause people to avoid criminal behavior despite their potential for gratification and the slight likelihood of penal sanctions. These approaches explain different aspects of criminal activity and thus, are complementary rather than incompatible. 49 references