Criminal decision making

Question 1

Outline 4 of McCarthy’s 9 assumptions to the rational choice approach to crime.

Answer 1

(2002)

1. people have preferences for outcomes
2. People always pick the same options
3. Preferences influenced by present/future time focus
4. Cost vs benefit accuracy is reliant upon accurate information gathering

Question 2

Economic approach

Answer 2

~ utility of committing crime vs not committing the crime

~ utility is based on cost-benefit analysis

Question 3

Name the two main costs of crime.

Answer 3

~ punishment costs

~ economic costs

Question 4

Punishment costs

Answer 4

~ self reported criminality is lower if perceived severity and certainty of sanctions are higher
~ larger deterrent effects for certainty of punishment over severity

Question 5

Economic costs

Answer 5

~ decrease in legitimate income = increase in crime

~ odds of stopping crime increase with legal earnings

Question 6

Deterrence theory

Answer 6

individuals make rational decisions to avoid punishment and are deterred by criminal sanctions

Question 7

Denver youth survey

Answer 7

(Matsueda et al., 2006)
~ increasing costs = increase in perceived risk –> 3% reduction in theft + 5% reduction in violence
~ reducing rewards = decrease in probability of being seen as ‘cool’ –> 6% reduction in theft + 7% reduction in violence
~ reducing rewards more effective than increasing costs

Question 8

Limitations with rational approaches

Answer 8

~ poor consideration of feelings –> can make you unconcerned about risk
~ heuristics and biases

Question 9

Types of feelings

Answer 9

~ visceral (pain, sexual arousal)
~ moods (good/bad)
~ emotions (anger/fear)

Question 10

Anticipated affects

Answer 10

e.g. regret, guilt
~ can be incorporated into rational decision-making
~ related to deterrence theory
~ also positive ‘sneaky thrills’

Question 11

Immediate affects

Answer 11

e.g. excitement, fear

~ not incorporated into rational/deterrence model

Question 12

Dual process models

Answer 12

decision making governed by two different modes of mental processing
~ system 1: fast, hot, affective, impulsive
~ system 2: slow, cool, rational, rule-based, systematic

Question 13

Hot/Cold model of criminal decision making

Answer 13

cool processing = rational cost-benefit analysis including anticipated emotions
hot processing = anticipatory or concurrent visceral emotions and moods

Question 14

Anchoring

Answer 14

tendency to judge too heavily the frequency/likelihood of an event by using a starting point called an anchor and then making adjustments up or down

Question 15

Availability heuristic

Answer 15

decision maker relies upon knowledge that is readily available rather than examine other alternative

Question 16

Representativeness

Answer 16

tendency to judge the frequency/likelihood of an event by the extent to which it resembles the typical case