Discounting as an Individual Variable (From Integrating Crime Prevention Strategies: Propensity and Opportunity, P 241- 254, 1995, Per-Olof H Wikstrom, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-164757)

• NCJ Number: 164767
• Author(s): C-G Janson
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: National Council for Crime Prevention
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: Sweden
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

In integrating effects of crime over time, future consequences can be discounted according to their distance in time; mechanisms behind time discounting, however, are not always entirely clear.

Abstract

Neither time distribution nor discounting is considered in the economic rational choice models of classical studies conducted by Becker and Ehrlich. In these studies, low but safe profits from legitimate activities are set against higher profits and uncertain losses in illegitimate activities. The models have room for different attitudes toward risk taking but not for discounting. When discounting is analyzed in economic rational choice models, it is usually expressed as a certain mathematical function of time. The standard procedure is to ask an interviewee to compare two situations at different times. Theoretical and empirical reasons to assume individual differences in discounting are examined, and the importance of developing a time perspective based on future events and goals is discussed in terms of socialization. Discounting is applied to characterize individuals in Stockholm, Sweden, who had a propensity to commit criminal acts and to assess the link between offending and such measures as family conditions, achievement, and delinquency. Implications of discounting for crime prevention policies are discussed. 25 references, 3 tables, and 1 figure