ABSTRACT
From Clarke, R.V., and Cornish, D.B. (1985). Modeling offenders’ decisions: A framework for research and policy. Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, 6, 147-185.
13.1 Abstract 312 13.2 Introduction 312 13.3 Relevant Concepts 314
13.3.1 Sociology of Deviance 314 13.3.2 Criminology 316 13.3.3 Economics 319 13.3.4 Cognitive Psychology 322
13.4 Models of Criminal Decision Making 325 13.4.1 Modeling Criminal Involvement and Criminal Events 327 13.4.2 The Need for Models to Be Crime Specific 328 13.4.3 The Example of Residential Burglary 329 13.4.4 Initial Involvement 330 13.4.5 The Criminal Event 331 13.4.6 Continuance 332 13.4.7 Desistance 335 13.4.8 Some General Observations 335
13.5 Conclusions 336 13.5.1 Policy 336 13.5.2 Research 338 13.5.3 Final Remarks 339
Developments in a number of academic disciplines-the sociology of deviance, criminology, economics, psychology-suggest that it is useful to see criminal behavior not as the result of psychologically and socially determined dispositions to offend, but as the outcome of the offender’s broadly rational choices and decisions. This perspective provides a basis for devising models of criminal behavior that (1) offer frameworks within which to locate existing research, (2) suggest directions for new research, (3) facilitate analysis of existing policy, and (4) help to identify potentially fruitful policy initiatives. Such models need not offer comprehensive explanations; they may be limited and incomplete, yet still be “good enough” to achieve these important policy and research purposes. To meet this criterion they need to be specific to particular forms of crime, and they need separately to describe both the processes of involvement in crime and the decisions surrounding the commission of the offense itself. Developing models that are crime specific and that take due account of rationality will also demand more knowledge about the ways in which offenders process and evaluate relevant information. Such a decision perspective appears to have most immediate payoff for crime control efforts aimed at reducing criminal opportunity.
