ABSTRACT
Extending from the “Classical School”, crime prevention theories operate under the same basic assumption of the “rational criminal”. Using this idea of rationality as the backdrop, the theorists in this chapter also developed policies to make crime or deviant behavior less attractive. By utilizing the theories and policies discussed below, one could successfully deflect, or block, being victimized. Basically, by either decreasing the pleasure or increasing the risk or pain of committing deviant acts in a specific location, one could reduce one’s own victimization. While these ideas do overlap with some of the foundational ideas presented by Beccaria and Bentham, the theorists in this chapter are shown to be more interested in what has been called “expected utility”, or the idea of pleasure maximization and pain avoidance. Therefore, policies such as Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (Jeffery) and Situational Crime Prevention (Clarke) are primarily focused on increasing the pain or decreasing the pleasure that crime and deviance provide to the offender.
