Summary

At the beginning of this lesson you were asked to think about a time when you had a choice to make as to which direction you would take or whether you should refrain from a certain act. That exercise was meant to have you think about the merits of rational choice theory and the notion of deterrence. Now, please think about that same event from a somewhat different perspective. Do you think that the choice you made, about which direction to take or the decision to engage in the type of behavior about which you are thinking, could have been influenced by factors other than your fear of negative consequences or hope for positive consequences? What else might have constrained you or pushed you toward your decision? You may be thinking about such things as: (1) modeling other people's behavior; (2) your home environment; (3) peer pressure; etc. etc. etc. Or, you may have been under the influence of some substance (alcohol or some illicit substance). It is also possible that your behavior was influenced by something internal to your biological or psychological system. As we will learn next week, positivist criminology, unlike classical criminology, focuses on the actor and his/her internal and external environment. Under positivism, you will learn that the choices one makes are multi-causal in nature; that there is much more to it than free will and rational choice.