Cognition and Crime: Offender Decision Making and Script Analyses

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.

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).