"According to this view, law-violating behavior should be viewed as an event that occurs when an offender decides to risk violating the law after considering his or her own personal situation (need for money, personal values, learning experiences) and situational factors (how well a target is protected, how affluent the neighborhood is, how efficient the local police happen to be). Before choosing to commit a crime, the reasoning criminal evaluates the risk of apprehension, the seriousness of the expected punishment, the value of the criminal enterprise, and his or her immediate need for criminal gain." Larry Siegel, Criminology, 4th ed., West publishing, 1992.
Poppycock. Might hold for white collar crime, but your average sicko rapist, child molestor or murderer is not inclined to be a "reasoning" criminal.
But if it is not considered poppycock, the obvious policy implication is that you can prevent crime by elevating the risk factor in the pre-crime analysis and making that high risk known to all potential offenders.
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