Previous Research on Societal Crime

Abstract

In this chapter, I discuss three kinds of research devoted to the analysis of societal crime that either assume rationality or are interesting from a rationality viewpoint: first, the economic-theoretical research done by Gary Becker and Isaac Ehrlich; second, empirical deterrence research of a noneconomic type; and, third, research that combines or tries to combine environmental and rational choice aspects. The rationality assumption plays different roles in these kinds of research. In the economic-theoretical research, this assumption is a foundation-stone used to derive propositions about crime and the combating of crime at the societal level. In noneconomic deterrence research, the rationality assumption is, as a rule, used informally and rather vaguely, even though the influence on crime of societal properties (the police, sentences imposed) assumed to affect particular decision-making factors is analyzed. In research that combines environmental and rational choice aspects, finally, the rationality assumption is also used in an informal and vague manner; here, however, the assumption is relatively often applied to ideas about individuals’ routine activities in a way that is not done in deterrence research.