Chapter 4 Flashcards
Rational Choice theory
The view that crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the would-be offender weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act.
Just desert
Applying fair and reasonable punishment, proportional to the damage or hurt caused by the crime.
Offense specific crime
The view that an offender reacts selectively to the characteristics of a particular criminal act.
Offender specific crime
The view that offenders evaluate their skills, motives, needs, and fears before deciding to commit crime.
Situational crime prevention
A method of
crime prevention that seeks to eliminate or reduce particular crimes in specific settings.
Defensible space
The principle
that crime can be prevented or displaced by modifying the physical environment to reduce the opportunity that individuals have to commit crime.
Diffusion
An effect that occurs when efforts to prevent one crime
unintentionally prevent another.
Discouragement
An effect that occurs when crime control efforts targeting a particular setting to help reduce crime in surrounding areas and populations.
Displacement
An effect that occurs when crime control efforts simply move, or redirect,
offenders to less heavily guarded alternative targets.
Extinction
An effect that occurs when crime reduction programs
produce a short-term positive effect, but benefits dissipate as criminals adjust to new
conditions.
Replacement
An effect that occurs when criminals try new offenses they had previously avoided because situational crime prevention programs neutralized their crime of choice.
General deterrence
A crime control policy that depends on the fear of criminal penalties, convincing the potential law violator that the pains associated with crime outweigh its benetits.
Marginal deterrence
Occurs when a relatively more severe penalty will produce some reduction in crime.
Restrictive (partial) deterrence
Refers to situations in which the threat of punishment can reduce but not eliminate crime.
Specific deterrence
The view that criminal
sanctions should be so powerful that offenders will never repeat their criminal acts.