W3 - Choice Theories

What characterized criminal law during the Dark Ages?

Law varied by region and local understandings, making justice unpredictable and inconsistent.

What were major pre-18th-century explanations of crime?

Crime was largely explained through religion, superstition, evil spirits, and magic.

What was demonology?

The belief that unusual or criminal behaviour could be caused by evil spirits or supernatural forces.

What was trial by ordeal?

A judicial practice using dangerous physical ordeals to determine guilt or innocence.

What major ideas emerged during the Enlightenment?

Human rights, social contract, natural law, equality before law, and reasoning-based justice.

Who were the two major founders of classical criminology?

Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham.

What did Beccaria criticize about 18th-century criminal justice?

He criticized cruelty, arbitrary punishment, excessive death penalties, and denial of fair treatment.

What reform did Beccaria advocate?

Humanitarian, rational, fair, and proportionate treatment of accused and convicted people.

What was Bentham's view of human behaviour?

People seek pleasure and avoid pain, making behaviour purposeful rather than spiritually determined.

What is utilitarianism?

The view that the best action maximizes utility or produces the greatest good.

What is Bentham's hedonistic calculus?

People rationally weigh pleasure and pain and choose actions expected to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.

How does classical criminology view human nature and crime?

People possess free will, seek pleasure and avoid pain, and may rationally choose crime when its expected benefits outweigh its costs.

What are the core elements of classical criminology?

Free will, rational crime, deterrence, certain/severe/swift punishment, proportionality, and hedonistic calculation.

Why is proportionality important in classical criminology?

Punishment should match the seriousness of the crime and be no more severe than necessary.

What is the classical theory of deterrence?

Fear of punishment can discourage people from choosing criminal behaviour.

What did classical criminology contribute to criminology?

It introduced major ideas of free will, rationality, utilitarianism, deterrence, and proportionate punishment.

Why did classical theory decline in the late 19th century?

Positivism shifted attention toward internal and external causes of crime beyond individual control.

Why did choice theory re-emerge in the 1970s?

Perceived failures of rehabilitation and concerns about recidivism encouraged renewed focus on choice, punishment, deterrence, and incapacitation.

What did James Q. Wilson argue about crime?

Crime is rational and can be reduced by limiting opportunities, increasing deterrence, and incapacitating offenders.

What is rational choice theory?

Crime is a choice made when a motivated offender perceives the expected benefits as outweighing the expected costs.

What personal factors can influence a criminal decision?

Needs or motives such as money, revenge, thrills, or entertainment can influence the decision.

What situational factors can influence a criminal decision?

Target characteristics, security, police effectiveness, and perceived risks can influence the decision.

What evidence supports rational choice theory?

Offenders make choices about timing, locations, victims, and criminal techniques.

What evidence challenges rational choice theory?

Expressive violence, self-destructive behaviour, and repeated offending can contradict a simple rational cost-benefit model.

What is the difference between crime and criminality?

Crime is a specific criminal event; criminality is a personal tendency or trait associated with illegal behaviour.

What is offence-specific crime analysis?

Analysis of characteristics of a particular criminal event, including potential rewards, risks, and methods.

What is offender-specific crime analysis?

Analysis of an offender's capabilities, motives, skills, and fears.

What are the three elements of routine activities theory?

A motivated offender, a suitable target, and absence of a capable guardian.

What is a suitable target?

A target that is vulnerable, desirable, accessible, or easily transported.

What is a capable guardian?

A person or security measure whose presence can deter or prevent offending.

What do rational choice and routine activities theories have in common?

Both emphasize motivated offenders, rational decision-making, and the importance of criminal opportunity.

How does rational choice theory differ from routine activities theory?

Rational choice focuses on an offender's decision-making at the micro level, while routine activities emphasizes how everyday patterns create opportunities for crime.

What is situational crime prevention?

Reducing crime by changing situations and limiting opportunities rather than attempting to change offender motivation.

What are the main situational crime prevention strategies?

Increase effort, increase risks, reduce rewards, reduce provocation, and remove excuses.

What is target hardening?

Making targets more difficult to steal from or attack through measures such as locks, alarms, or tracking.

What is defensible space/CPTED?

Modifying physical environments to reduce crime opportunities through design, surveillance, and control of space.

What are guardians, handlers, and managers?

Guardians monitor targets, handlers monitor offenders, and managers monitor places.

What is crime displacement?

Prevention efforts shift crime to another place, time, target, method, offender, or type.

What is diffusion of benefits?

Crime prevention unexpectedly reduces crime beyond the specific area or offence targeted.

What is extinction in situational crime prevention?

Short-term prevention benefits disappear as offenders adapt to new measures.

What is general deterrence?

Using punishment to create fear of legal consequences throughout the wider population.

What are the three elements of general deterrence?

Certainty, severity, and speed (celerity) of punishment.

Which element of deterrence is especially powerful?

Certainty of apprehension is more powerful than punishment severity.

What did the Kansas City patrol experiment find?

Changes in patrol frequency produced no significant effect on crime or burglary rates.

What is the broken-windows approach?

Targeting minor disorder to restore social order, although it may not address underlying causes of crime.

What is specific deterrence?

Using punishment to discourage known offenders from committing future offences.

Why can incarceration fail as specific deterrence?

Stigma, defiance, criminal identity, and prison conditions can contribute to continued offending.

What is incapacitation?

Restricting offenders' opportunities to commit crime, usually through incarceration.

What is selective incapacitation?

Targeting high-rate or chronic offenders for extended incapacitation.

What are major perverse effects of incarceration?

It can brutalize offenders, create criminal labels, reduce legitimate employment, and create replacement offenders.

What is reintegrative shaming?

Condemning the criminal act while maintaining respect for the offender and allowing reintegration into society.

What is the brutalization effect?

The possibility that harsh punishment or executions can increase violence by communicating that violence is an acceptable response to violence.

What is just desert/retribution?

The view that punishment is deserved for wrongdoing and should be proportionate, fair, and consistent with social equity.

What did R. v. Lloyd establish?

A one-year mandatory minimum for certain drug trafficking offences was struck down under Charter section 12.

What was the significance of R. v. Kokesch, R. v. Wong, and R. v. Dersch?

These cases reinforced section 8 privacy protections by limiting warrantless perimeter searches, requiring authorization for covert video surveillance, and protecting medical blood evidence from improper seizure.

What did the Westray disaster lead to in Canadian criminal law?

The Westray Bill created criminal liability for corporate leaders whose negligence causes workplace injury or death.

What is the relationship between choice theory and modern crime control?

Choice theory influences opportunity reduction, environmental design, policing, deterrence, and sentencing policies.