Cjs 240 Wk 1 Assigenment

319 Words2 Pages
Some adolescents are motivated to commit crime because they don’t fear the consequences. Most delinquents in my opinion are rational thinkers. It is my opinion that delinquents commit crimes for personal gain (money, street credit), gang initiation, or simply for fun. This is why I agree with choice theory. Choice theory is where offenders are rational decision makers who choose to engage in anti-social activity because they believe their actions will be beneficial. Some adolescents choose to sell drugs because they think that it will help to improve their living conditions. Some choose to participate in gang activity because being in a gang makes them feel like they belong to something significant. Some may get a natural high off of committing crime. There could be a million reasons as to why a person commits a crime. At the end of the day it all comes back to that person personal choice. This doesn’t mean that they don’t know right from wrong. This simply means that they don’t believe that they will be caught and if they are caught, they don’t believe that they would do major time for their crime. I want to bring up specific deterrence. Specific deterrence is where a young offender is punished severely, the experience will convince them not to repeat their illegal actions. In today’s society we focus more so on reforming the youthful offender. If we were to aim the focus at disciplining the offender perhaps they would learn from their crimes. Offenders in this society know or at least thinks that they will only get a smack on the wrist if they were to commit a crime. This in turn doesn’t help to deter them from their criminal ways. The adolescents that are in similar circumstances uses the choice theory wisely. They effectively weigh their options and decide that it’s not worth the risk of being caught and being
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