Abstract
What is meant by a rational crime, or a rational action in general? The fact that something is rational implies that it is reasonable, that is, in accordance with sound thought or judgment. In this book, this reasonableness refers to individuals’ choices. Thus, considering the rationality of a person’s action here means considering whether, or to what extent, the person has chosen this action according to reason. In judging this, one must consider what the chosen action was worth to the person in comparison to other actions that he might have chosen. Fundamentally, the concept of rationality implies that a rational person should choose the ‘best’ course of action (if there is only one such course), that is, the action that will benefit him as much as possible, that has the highest ‘utility’ for him.
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© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Dahlbäck, O. (2003). The Assumption of Rationality. In: Analyzing Rational Crime — Models and Methods. Theory and Decision Library, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0721-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0721-3_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6441-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-0721-3
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