Theories of Action in Criminology: Learning Theory and Rational Choice Approaches (From Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 5, P 351-382, 1993, Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, eds. - See NCJ-159998)

• NCJ Number: 160014
• Author(s): D Cornish
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 32 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter responds to the recent article by Ronald L. Akers (1990) expounding on the similarities between rational choice and social learning approaches to criminal behavior.

Abstract

This reply makes no defense of the rational choice perspective, asserting that its heuristic value is incontrovertible, but instead answers three substantive issues raised by Akers. These include the need for adequate microlevel theories of human action in criminology, the metatheoretical requirements of such theories, and the competing claims and areas of convenience of existing candidate theories. The rational choice perspective is useful in conceptualizing and investigating the local interactional field, in relating concepts in everyday language, in avoiding the need to constantly update its action theory, and in maintaining a generality appropriate to the microsociological level of explanation at which it operates. 135 references