The rational choice perspective and offending
In its simplest form, the rational choice perspective posits that individuals will choose to offend if they perceive that the benefits of offending outweigh the potential costs. This perspective has fueled numerous Western criminal justice policies focused on deterring crime through the threat of harsh punitive sanctions (Corva, 2008; O’Malley, 2012). Intensive probation programs focused on swift and certain punishment also emphasize the importance of increasing surveillance in order to increase the perception that consequences of offending are a surety while on probation (Bartels, 2015; Hawken & Kleiman, 2009). Harsh punitive sanctions for drug possession and the death penalty are other examples of these types of deterrence strategies also. While past research on the effectiveness of programs like these is mixed at best (Braga et al., 2018; Dölling et al., 2009; Drake et al., 2009), the fact that the rational choice perspective continues to influence programmatic decision-making indicates the importance of better understanding how the perspective may inform design and implementation decisions. This assumption of rational choice that an individual makes to offend or not is ultimately rooted in the weighing of potential costs and rewards of offending.