NCJ Number
160006
Date Published
1993
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This chapter explores areas of potential conceptual commonality between the rational choice perspective and contemporary approaches to radical behaviorist theory, which is based on the writings of B.F. Skinner.
Abstract
Both rational choice and behavior analysis focus on behavior as the primary data for analysis, emphasize the importance of the consequences of behavior in the context of the situation in which it occurs, associate the causes of behavior with the events associated with it, and emphasize the significance of the environment in which people live as a determinant of their behavior. Both approaches are applied here to the problems of crime related to political violence. Three interrelated issues involved in this discussion include the dynamic of behavior, the role of ideology as a form of rule governance, and the distinction between involvement and events in politically extreme behavior. 6 notes and 44 references