ABSTRACT
Although proponents of rational choice theory (RCT)1 share some assump tions that may be called core assumptions, there are decisive differences in regard to other supplementary assumptions. In fact, there exist various ver sions of RCT. This chapter distinguishes two extreme versions that we will call the ‘narrow model’ and the ‘wide model’. The former can be identified with neoclassical economic theory and it underlies most writings of the economic theory of crime. Examples of this tradition are the work of Gary Becker and Isaac Ehrlich. The ‘wide model’ is more akin to the idea that individuals’ behaviour is characterized by ‘limited rationality’. In the field of crime the wide model seems to be applied in work such as The Reasoning Criminal (Cornish and Clarke, 1986). The chapter begins by laying out the major assumptions of the two
models. Some standard arguments against the wide model are then dis cussed (it is argued that subjective phenomena cannot be measured and that the wide model is tautological), with one argument against the narrow model: that it has been falsified in various empirical studies. A final section discusses which model is more fruitful for explaining the emergence and effects of crime or deviant behaviour in general. In order to avoid misunderstandings it is necessary to emphasize that the
issue of this chapter is not to define ‘rationality’ or any related term such as ‘limited rationality’. The issue is what type of rational choice theory is more adequate to explain real phenomena. For this discussion it is completely irrelevant how the term ‘rationality’ is defined. If a reader asks the seem ingly inevitable question in discussions of RCT, ‘Do people behave
rationally?’, the only meaningful answer is, ‘Tell me what you mean by “rational” and I will tell you whether people behave “rationally” according to RCT (or a special version thereof)’. Sometimes the proposition is put forward that ‘All men behave rationally’. This hypothesis is only testable if the term ‘rational’ is clarified. However, in the following, to avoid endless discussion, we will not define the term ‘rational’; instead we will discuss rational choice theory.
