Introduction

Abstract

It seems to be a rather common view that many crimes, particularly those against property, are to a high degree rationally entered into. This view is often expressed in the debate over crime and measures to prevent it, and it probably governs much of the law-making in this area. The view is also found in a variety of contexts in criminology. A number of theories of crime are based, explicitly or implicitly, on the assumption that people choose between committing and not committing crime with a considerable degree of rationality. Certainly, the opposite assumption can also be found in the research — that crimes are the result of nonrational choices. But that view is primarily applied to crimes of violence.