Wortopolois: Cost-Benefit Analysis

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Wortopolois experienced a recession in 1980 after three decades of prosperity. The city had an unemployment rate of 3% and had a strong economy based on large-scale manufacturing. The recession was kick-started when the city saw increases in crime after the city was ravaged by corporate fraud and illegal investment practices, which caused the banking sector to collapse. This increase in crime lead to the manufacturing companies taking their businesses offshore. The city then experienced spikes in school dropouts, divorce, poverty, and social inequality. The demand for social benefits and public housing raised, which then resulted in cuts to the police service. The rational choice and anomie strain theory can explain why crime has increased.…show more content…
The rational choice theory states that humans will conduct a cost-benefit analysis before they commit crime (Boyd, 2014). The rate of property crime in Wortropolis rose significantly during a recession. The unemployment rate also rose from 3% to 20% during the recession. When the recession was coming to an end in 2001, Wortopolis attracted a new computer developer company. It hired many people but the unemployment rate only dropped to 10%, which was still three times higher than what it was before the recession. Crimes do not go up when a recession starts, because people will stay inside and save money. It will increase when it lasts for an extended period time because people will look for ways to make some extra money (Wortley, Lecture 5). The permanent residents of Wortropolis did not get the jobs that this new computer developer company created. They instead got low paying jobs in the service sector. The unemployment rate went down, but social inequality rose between 2001 and…show more content…
The theories explain the increase in both violent and property crime through the inability to obtain the means to achieve the American dream, which then made it a rational choice to commit crime. These theories face limitations when it comes to accounting for parts of the population that have ability to achieve the American dream but still commit crime. The anomie strain theory only applies to crime committed by people who no longer have the means to achieve the American dream. The rational choice theory only applies to people who people who feel they are no longer capable of achieving these dreams so it becomes rational for them commit

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