Rational Choice/Opportunity Perspectives as a Vehicle for Integrating Criminological and Victimological Theories (From Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 5, P 225-258, 1993, Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, eds. - See NCJ-159998)

• NCJ Number: 160009
• Author(s): E A Fattah
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 34 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter discusses the need for a new approach to criminal behavior and proposes some possibilities for integrating criminological and victimological perspectives.

Abstract

Positivist criminology fails to explain criminal behavior adequately because it rests on several faulty assumptions: that crime is a distinct category of human behavior, that there is a dichotomy between criminals and noncriminals, and that there is a dichotomy between victims and offenders. The rational choice perspective on criminal behavior recognizes the mundane and opportunistic nature of offending, stresses similarities between criminals and noncriminals, provides crime-specific analysis, and focuses on the criminal event and situational factors, rather than on characteristics that govern an individual's involvement in crime. There are also many parallels between the rational choice perspective and the victimological perspective in terms of their emphasis on crime as a consequence of normal human interaction, their recognition of the importance of situational variables, the attention paid to criminal motive, and their focus on innovative crime prevention measures. 11 notes and 101 references