The decision to commit crime: Rational or nonrational?

Abstract

Rational choice theory has received a fair amount of attention from criminal justice scholars and societal policy makers looking for an alternative to traditional deterministic theories of criminal behavior and is a core feature of several major criminological theories. In an effort to provide a more comprehensive perspective on criminal decision-making, the current paper highlights the role of emotion in the choice process and reviews factors that increase the likelihood of antisocial outcomes. The result is a theory of decision-making in which the individual is believed to act on the hedonistic and moral emotions that guide moral decision-making and where irrelevant emotions are enhanced and relevant emotions dampened by cognitive and situational factors that, in the end, serve as the foundation for criminal choice.