Lilly Cullen Ball Criminological Theory Sixth Edition 2015 SAGE Publications Criminological Theory Introduction These theories are concerned with crime and not with criminality and what is occurring ID: 697031
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Slide1
Choosing Crime in Everyday Life: Routine Activity and Rational Choice Theories
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE Publications
Criminological TheorySlide2
Introduction
These theories are concerned with crime and not with criminality and what is occurring
in the present situation
Label this approach
crime science, which seeks to understand why crime events occur, and is opposed to criminology that tries to understand why people are criminalThe theories in this chapter assert that offenders are active, thinking participants in their criminal ventures; they make choicesOpportunity theoriesNo crime can be committed unless the opportunity to complete the act is present Traditional criminology has taken opportunity for grantedRational choice theoryOffenders are “rational” in the decisions they makeThey choose crimes that offer immediate gratification, that require little effort to complete, and that expose them to scant risk of detection and arrest
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide3
Introduction
Crime occurs in the context of the everyday lives that offenders and their victims lead
Emerging from the routines that people—whether offenders or their victims—follow as they go about their daily lives (
routine activities theory
)These approaches propose very practical methods for reducing crimeSituational crime preventionLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide4
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime
Opportunity is a necessary condition for any specific crime to be
committed
The distribution of opportunities and individuals’ access to these opportunities explain why certain geographical areas have higher crime rates than other areas and why certain individuals are more involved in crime than other individuals
Marcus Felson and Lawrence Cohen developed routine activities theoryFor them, decrease opportunities for offending and crime will be reducedLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide5
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime
Focus on aspects of the environment that are most easily manipulated
The tendency of this perspective to focus on the pragmatic and to avoid discussing issues of inequality and power—and how they structure criminal opportunities is an implicit ideological decision
Uses the term “pestilence fallacy” to describe the tendency of criminologists to treat crime “as one of many evils that comes from other evils in society”
Uses the term “the not-me fallacy” to describe the supposedly mistaken assumption that “most individuals would like to think that they are fundamentally different from serious offenders in their willingness to commit crimesLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide6
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime
Americans have become suspicious of liberal efforts to build a large welfare state and of conservative efforts to create a state that simultaneously imposes right-wing morals on others and gives corporations and financial institutions unfettered discretion
The attractiveness of opportunity theories of crime is that they avoid larger discussions of whether the United States is excessively unequal or excessively morally permissive and argue that crime can be prevented meaningfully without a major cultural or social revolution
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide7
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: The Chemistry for Crime
Each successfully completed violation minimally requires an offender with both criminal inclinations and the ability to carry out those inclinations
Criminal
events require a motivated offender who has the opportunity to act on those
motivations (See Table 13.1)There must be a person or object providing a suitable target for the offenderThere must be an absence of guardians capable of preventing violationsThe ingredients must converge in time and spaceLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide8
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: The Chemistry for Crime
The major determinant of this convergence was the routine activities of people in society
The term routine carried two meanings:
Everyday activities
The mundane in lifeThe amount of crime was influenced not by the pathological features of society but rather but its normal organizationA key reason for crime in the US is because since the WWII, the US has experienced a major shift in routine activities away from the homeLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide9
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: The Chemistry for Crime
Felson argued that poverty areas may increase temptations and decrease
controls
However, still failed to develop systematically within his theory how the political economy shapes illegal opportunities and shapes the social distribution of crime
Research supports that routine activities influence rates of crime across ecological unitsRoutine activities theory has also been used to identify the individuals most likely to be victimizedLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide10
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: The Chemistry for Crime
There also is a growing body of scholarship showing how routine activities can affect who in society is most likely to be
victimized
Some individuals are more likely to be victimized than othersExplained this differential victimization by a “lifestyle model” in which those whose lifestyles or routine activities are riskier—exposing them to potential offenders—are more likely to experience a higher level of personal victimization (Garofalo, 1987)Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide11
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: View of Offenders
Routine activity theory is most compatible with rational choice theory and theories of low
self-control
Crime is less likely to occur when it is made less
attractiveIn any situation where a crime event could transpire, the decision to offend will be influenced by the ease or difficulty with which the offender’s search for gratification can be satisfiedScholars argue that it is necessary to study not only the routines of the potential victims, but also the potential offendersOffenders play an active role in producing criminal opportunitiesLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide12
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: View of Offenders
Based on a view of offenders as gratification seekers who wish to gain quick pleasure and avoid imminent pain
Offender search theory:
The study of the routines of potential offenders and how they select their targets to victimize
Offenders develop cognitive maps and mental templates and offend in places that are familiar to themLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide13
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: Policy Implications
Routine activity theory forgoes any thoughts of how steps might be taken to change the criminality or motivations of
lawbreakers
The key to stopping crime is to prevent the intersection in time and space of offenders and targets that lack
guardianshipMake crime more difficultDefensible spaceCrime prevention through environmental designLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide14
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: Policy Implications
Situational crime prevention:
Increase the effort
needed to commit a crime
Increase the risks of attempting to commit a crimeReduce the rewards of crimeLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide15
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: Policy Implications
Felson argued blocking opportunities can be heightened through three strategies:
Natural strategies
: Space is designed in such a way that people are channeled to go where they will do no harm or receive no harm
Organized strategies: Security guards are hired for the express purpose of making crime difficultMechanical strategies: Alarms, cameras, and other hardware are employed to control access and provide surveillance Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide16
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: Policy Implications
Eck’s controllers or those who discourage crime
Sees crime as the intersection of
offenders
and targets in a particular placeEach of these three elements has a potential controller—a person (or people) whose role it is to protect themIf a controller is present, then the opportunity for crime either is diminished or vanishesCrime triangle (See Figure 13.1)Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide17
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: Policy Implications
Eck’s controllers
Offenders have handlers
Targets (victims) have guardians
Places have managersLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide18
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: Policy Implications
Advocates of opportunity reduction usually emphasize the importance of strategies that do not involve the use of police; however problem-oriented policing
Problem oriented policing
: Police would define a problem, and then devise strategies to make these specific offenses more difficult to commit
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide19
Routine Activities Theory: Opportunity and Crime: Policy Implications
Research generally suggests that situational crime prevention and efforts to design out crime achieve reductions in crime
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide20
Criticisms of Routine Activity Theory
Few
evaluations of crime prevention programs systematically take into account the “displacement effect
”
The possibility that when crime is made more difficult in one location, offenders will move on and commit their crimes in another locationHowever, unlikely that crimes blocked in one place are displaced 100% to another place When a crime is thwarted, finding a new opportunity to offend often takes time and effortA particular type of crime may have “choice structuring properties”A disruption in a community’s criminal opportunity structure may diminish offending until new routines and cognitive maps are developedLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide21
Rational Choice Theory
Derek, Cornish, and Clarke
Rational choice leads to a preference to control crime not through state criminal sanctions, but through more informal situational crime prevention
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide22
Rational Choice Theory: Rational Choice and Crime
Criminal motivations are important for giving people a taste for crime or in increasing the probability that crime will be subjectively available to people
However, crime also involves a concrete choice, or a sequence of choices, that must be made if these motivations are to result in an actual criminal act
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide23
Rational Choice Theory: Rational Choice and Crime
Take seriously how offenders
think
so as to predict when criminal events will occur
Decisions that offenders make are purposiveTheir decisions are based in bounded rationality Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide24
Rational Choice Theory: Policy Implications
Every act of crime involves some choice by the offender and he/she can be held responsible for that choice and punished
Scare people straight with severe punishments
Situational
crime prevention: By studying how offenders make decisions, steps may be taken to reduce such opportunities for these offenses to occurThe danger in rational choice theory, however, is that offenders will be treated as though they were only decision makersLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide25
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
The core of this theory is offenders are rational but making a decision is a complex process
Wright and Decker showed that offenders make a series of choices about whether to offend, which targets to victimize, how to complete the crime effectively, and how to avoid detection
However, the offending decision did not appear to be independent; rather, it is shaped by the street culture
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide26
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
The real qualms about the use of the term rational are scientific
Criminologists in this perspective fail to provide any clear criteria that could be used to assess whether or not choices made by offenders are rational
Simple rational choice theory—sometimes called “neoclassical economics”—is under reconsideration more generally from “behavioral economics,” which merges the insights of economics with those of social psychology
Choices involve not merely incentives, as economists contend, but also social psychological processesLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide27
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
People’s decisions are systematically biased by the methods or short-cuts they employ when making choices
Rules of thumb or decision strategies that social psychologists call “heuristics”
Biases are likely a core reason why harsh penalties that seek to increase the costs of crime are of limited effectiveness
Behavioral economics shows us that all decision making is shaped by complex processes that cannot be reduced to the neoclassical view that judgments about utility—costs and benefits—rule human choice Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide28
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
Emotion is a factor that adds to the complexity of decision making
Hard to test emotion because many students are self-report surveys
Emotions shape decision making in three ways:
Negative emotions can serve as costs that make the choice of crime less likelyPositive emotions about crime can servce as a benefitEmotional states can change the context of crimeLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide29
Rational Choice Theory: Are Offenders’ Choices Rational?
Emotions can affect actions before a conscious decision can be made
Done at the subcortical level
Emotions can incite “intrinsic attractiveness” or “
aversiveness” and lead us to assign valences to certain lines of actionEmotions shape not only individual but also collective decisions through “mimicking and emotional contagion” Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide30
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
Perceptual deterrence theory proposes that individuals break the law when the costs outweigh the benefits
The decision to offend depends on the
perceptions
of the costs and benefits and not on actual or objective risks of being sanctioned or gaining rewardsLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide31
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
Differs from rational choice theory in three ways:
Does not assume rationality
Traditionally focused more on perceptions of legal punishments
The policy proposals from perceptual deterrence theory are often unstated or unclearLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide32
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
Arose in large part because of the weaknesses in traditional deterrence theory
Instead of actual risks of being caught, what should matter more is what individuals
thought were their chances of getting caught
(the “certainty” of punishment) and what they thought would happen to them after they were caught Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide33
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
Early studies tended to show that there is a deterrent effect, especially for certainty of punishment
If the respondents thought they had a high chance of being caught and punished (regardless of how severe the resulting punishment might be), they were less likely to report breaking the law
However, these studies were often bivariate
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide34
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
In more methodologically rigorous investigations, the effects of perceptual deterrence factors were substantially diminished
Perceptual deterrence due to legal sanctions is likely a weak cause of crime
Perceptual deterrence needs to develop a richer perspective ho how deterrence is specified
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide35
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
Aside from the cost of arrest, there are other perceptions that must be taken into
account
Non-legal costs:
The stigma of arrestCommitment costsAttachment costsAdditionally:Socially-imposed costsSelf-imposed costs
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide36
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
Perceptual deterrence theory has focused disproportionately on the “cost” side of the cost-benefit calculus
Potential benefits of crime are unmeasured or are viewed as limited
Perceptual deterrence theory needs to explore more systematically how perceptions of punishment are shaped by individual differences among potential offenders
The perceived utility and consequences of crime are not judged equally by all potential offenders but rather are filtered through people’s personalities Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide37
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
Perceptual deterrence theory needs to take into account the complex ways in which perceptions are formed and influence behavior
When people are punished for an offense, it tends to
lower
their perceptions of the certainty of punishment and to increase their offending (resetting)Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide38
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
Warr and Stafford argue there are four potential sources of perceptions:
Direct punishment
Indirect punishment
Direct avoidance of punishmentIndirect avoidance of punishmentLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide39
Perceptual Deterrence Theory
Current perceptions of the risk of punishment are based both on past risk perceptions and on newly acquired information
Perceptions thus are not static but dynamic, always being updated as individuals’ experiences with punishment change
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide40
Perceptual Deterrence Theory: Policy Implications – Certainty, Not Severity
Kleiman’s
When Brute Force Fails
discusses how the U.S. has attempted to solve the crime problem with incarceration and severe punishment and it has been ineffective
Scholars are now arguing the key to crime control is to emphasize certainty over severity of punishmentProject HOPE Custodial sanctions do not specifically deterPolice practices that increase the certainty of arrest deterLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide41
Situational Action Theory
Per-Olof
Wikstrom’s
situational action theory (SAT) is complex theory that seeks to explain the likelihood that a person will come to see an act of crime as an action alternative and choose to carry it outCrime is a form of moral action (involves a decision of right and wrong)The decision occurs within a context or setting that has a moral quality Crime is thus a situation Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide42
Situational Action Theory
Causal mechanism is:Choice of crime begins with people experiencing the motivation to engage in crime
A moral filter arises that affects the action alternatives or possible choices that can occur in response to motivation
Consists of a moral propensity and a moral context
A rational deliberation then occurs about whether to commit crimeLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide43
Situational Action Theory
Wikstrom also argues there are systemic factors and life-history factors are important and affect choice of crime to the extent they influence the variables in SAT
Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide44
Situational Action Theory
SAT’s core construct, moral propensity, only conceives morality as a matter of whether an act is seen as wrong
Akers’s
definitions in a far more complex factor
Self-control may precede morality However, SAT has two important contributions:Choice of crime cannot be reduced to a simple calculation of costs and benefitsIllustrates the importance of seeing choices as situational, involving the interaction between individuals and contextLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide45
Conclusion
Concern is largely with the present and with the crime-inducing factors that are proximate or contemporaneous with the criminal act that is about to occur
Theories of choice and opportunity remind us that offenders are active and not passive participants in the decision to break the law
Need to consider how the decision to offend is affected by perceptions of costs and benefits and by situational factors such as the attractiveness of targets and the presence of controllers
The theories have important policy implications – reducing the opportunities to offendLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE Publications