ABSTRACT
So-called classical ideas about crime and justice, originating in the eighteenth-century writings of European philosophers, are important for several reasons. First, they laid the foundations for many justice systems around the world, including the most expensive and largest system in the United States. The basic idea underlying classical theory is that humans are economic actors and that crime is a rational choice that people make from a range of behavioral options; in this way, people choose what they perceive to be in their best interests. Consequently, the underlying assumption is that humans, as rational goal-directed beings, conduct a cost/benefit analysis before engaging in behavior. Most of the criminal justice policies modeled on the classical perspective revolve around the idea of due process and include what are now considered basic individual "rights." Contemporary classical theories, called neoclassical or, more recently, rational or situational choice theories, recognize that there are limits to the freedom of individuals to behave fully or perfectly rationally.
