Rational Choice Theory Essay

Rational Choice theory was developed to explain the voting-behaviour by the RAND corporation, in 1951 (Amadae, 2003). It was adapted by Cornish and Clarke (1985) to explain burglaries, and to develop situational crime prevention. The-theoretical belief of RCT is that an individual weighs the costs and benefits of committing a-crime before deciding to proceed (Clarke & Ronald, 1997). Underlying this belief is the-assumption that individuals have sets of hierarchically preferences shaped by their personal-factors and the situation present (Clarke & Ronald, 1997).

The central components and arguments of RCT are as follows (Gul, 2009):

- The human being is an actor within-all the situations

- The state is responsible for maintaining order and

Tannenbaum examined the way criminological courts dramatized evil to-discriminate between good and evil (Tannenbaum, 1968). Whilst Goffman progressed this-observation in the 1950-60s through incorporating themes of a master status and-damaged identities (Murphy et al., 2011). Master status refers to the way in which the individual-views themselves, influencing-the self-fulfilling prophecy (Murphy et al., 2011). Damaged identity refers to the-stigmatisation that-is associated with the tag ‘criminal’ (Murphy et al., 2011). When LT was introduced it focussed on the criminalisation process, rather than what was done previously, focussing on characteristics of the-individual and their surrounding environment (Davis, 1972). The theory assumes that societies reaction to labelling leads to-stigmatisation, and ultimately altering identity (Davis, 1972). Furthermore, the core argument evolving from this is that once a deviant act is committed (primary deviant), they are-labelled-negatively as a criminal, and therefore this label becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as the individual would become the person they are seen, rather than who they are (Scimecca,