Cognition and Crime
Offender Decision Making and Script Analyses
Edited by Benoit Leclerc, Richard Wortley
Routledge – 2013 – 264 pages
Series: Crime Science Series
The rational choice perspective developed by Cornish and Clarke in 1986 provides criminologists with a valuable and practical framework for purposes of crime control and prevention. More than twenty-five years later, Cognition and Crime pushes the boundaries of this field of research by bringing together international leading (or emerging) researchers in this area of script analysis into a single volume for the first time. It also presents a series of original contributions on offender decision-making during crime and crime script analysis as well as offering a critical perspective of what could be achieved in the future to further help develop this field of research for prevention purposes. In addition, each empirical chapter treats a specific and important form of crime such as stalking violence, drug dealing, human trafficking for sexual exploitation, child sexual abuse, and transnational illegal market of endangered species.
Academics and students from various backgrounds, and interested in investigating and preventing crime, will benefit from this book as it applies crime script analysis and discusses new and future developments in regards to this approach and the rational choice perspective. This volume will be of particular relevance for practitioners such as police officers and crime investigators.
"Cognition and Crime greatly advances our understanding of how criminal offenders decide whether to attempt a crime, how they choose their targets, what encourages or discourages them from attempting the crime, what methods they select to commit their crimes, and how they plan, commit, complete, and escape detection for their crime. Criminologists, crime scientists, crime prevention practitioners, and criminal justice officials alike will find important and useful information in this volume." – Michael Scott, Clinical Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin
"Cornish and Clarke’s seminal The Reasoning Criminal was published a quarter of a century ago and is still much cited. This book is its worthy successor. Professionals in fields as diverse as child protection and counter-terrorism will find in its pages much that is applicable to their work." – Ken Pease, Visiting Professor of Crime Science, University College London
Preface, Derek B. Cornish, 1. The reasoning criminal: Twenty-five years on, Benoit Leclerc and Richard Wortley, 2. What are violent offenders thinking? Richard Felson, 3. How burglars decide on targets: A computer-based scenario approach, Ross Homel, Stuart MacIntyre, and Richard Wortley, 4. The risks and rewards of motor vehicle theft: Implications for criminal persistence, Heith Copes and Michael Cherbonneau, 5. The rational choice perspective and the phenomenon of stalking: An examination of sex differences in behaviours, rationales, situational precipitators and feelings, Carleen Thompson and Benoit Leclerc, 6. Interpersonal scripts and victim reaction in child sexual abuse: A quantitative analysis of the offender-victim interchange Benoit Leclerc, Stephen Smallbone and Richard Wortley, 7. Drug dealing: Amsterdam’s Red Light district, Scott Jacques and Wim Bernasco, 8. Human trafficking for sexual exploitation in Italy, Ernesto Savona, Luca Giommoni and Marina Mancuso, 9. Script analysis of corruption in public procurement, Marco Zanella, 10. Cigarette smuggling and terrorism financing: A script approach, Alexandra Hiropoulos, Joshua Freilich, Steven Chermak and Graeme Newman, 11. Script analysis of the transnational illegal market in endangered species: Dream and reality, William Moreto and Ronald V. Clarke, 12. New developments in script analysis for situational crime prevention: Moving beyond offender scripts, Benoit Leclerc, 13. Rational choice and offender decision making: Lessons from the cognitive sciences, Richard Wortley.
Dr Benoit Leclerc is a criminologist in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. He has been involved in research and clinical work with adolescent and adult sex offenders at the Philippe-Pinel Institute of Montréal for 7 years and received his Ph.D. from the Université of Montréal, Canada. His research interests include crime script analysis, situational crime prevention and sexual offending. A recent funded project involves the study of the effectiveness of situational crime prevention to prevent sexual offences.
Professor Richard Wortley is Director of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at University College London. He has published widely in the areas of situational crime prevention, corrections and sexual offending. He has recent books entitled Situational Prison Control: Crime Prevention in Correctional Institutions (Cambridge University Press), Situational Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse (co-edited with Stephen Smallbone – Criminal Justice Press), Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis (co-edited with Lorraine Mazerolle – Willan Publishing), and Preventing Child Sexual Abuse (co-written with Stephen Smallbone and William Marshall – Willan Publishing).