Derek Cornish

Derek B. Cornish was a British psychologist and criminologist who, together with Ronald V. Clarke, developed the rational choice perspective in criminology. Their 1986 edited volume, The Reasoning Criminal: Rational Choice Perspectives on Offending, proposed that offenders make broadly rational decisions weighing the perceived costs, benefits and risks of a criminal act against available alternatives, a framework Cornish and Clarke built out of their earlier work on situational crime prevention and their frustration with theories that explained crime solely through offenders' fixed dispositions. The perspective introduced the concept of choice-structuring properties, the specific mix of opportunities, costs and benefits that varies from one type of crime to another, and it went on to underpin much of the situational crime prevention approach applied in criminal justice policy.