Offender decision-making in the physical presence of peers: Applying Rational Choice Theory and Prospect Theory

• In Event: Offending Decisions in Social and Legal Context:

Abstract

Offender decision-making generally occurs in social context. Despite increasing acknowledgement of the role of external social factors in individual decision-making, the decision-making literature still mainly focuses on internal cognitive processes. The current study elaborates on two ways in which peers can affect offender decision-making. First, the physical presence of peers or co-offenders can affect actual and perceived (non)social costs and rewards, such as the risk of getting caught or the chance of success of an offence. Second, peers can cast a decision in a positive or negative light (frame it as a gain or loss), which changes the decision-making framework without changing the actual gains and losses under consideration. The current study provides a theoretical foundation for these integrations of the peers literature with the decision-making literature, and illustrates it with findings from a study on narratives about deviant behavior collected among Dutch adolescents, aged 15 to 18. The study concludes with a discussion on how both lines of research in criminology---peers and offender decision-making---can benefit from further integration. After all, it is the combination of external and internal factors that ultimately determines how an individual will act.

Author

• Evelien Hoeben, SUNY University at Albany