Theory is an explanation, model, or framework for understanding events or processes. This in turn helps the criminal justice system understand not only why people commit a crime, but also who commits a crime and how offenders stop committing crimes. As Cornish and Clarke point out, offenders seek to profit from their criminal behavior; it involves the process of making decisions and choices. With this, we can begin to try to understand why certain groups of offenders actually commit these crimes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The first theoretical block: choice and decision making emphasizes that offenders have free will and the propensity to decide whether or not to commit a crime. This is because the offender rationally weighs risks and rewards and concludes that the potential reward is greater than the perceived risk if he or she were to be arrested. In this Theory block, there are two main sections: Classic which includes the theorists: Beccaria (1738-1794), Bentham (1748-1832), Ferri (1856-1928) and Lombroso (1835-1909). Both Beccaria and Bentham believed that to deter a person from committing a crime, punishment must follow quickly and have greater consequences than the reward resulting from committing the crime (Newburn, 2017). In many cases the reward consisted of material pleasure or psychological pleasure through the excitement of breaking the law. The second section is more commonly called neo-classical and includes the theorists: Becker (1928-), Clarke (1946-) & Cornish (1939-) and Cohen (1918-2014) & Felson. This article states that offenders engage in crimes in order to enrich themselves in some way, whether financially or through material objects. Beccaria said the law should clearly announce which acts are prohibited as well as the different penalties imposed for each crime. Punishment for that crime must then be meted out quickly and with certainty in order to create a strong connection and certainty in people's minds between a crime and its inevitable punishment. This idea helps deter any criminal who is considering committing a crime because the punishment now outweighs the reward and could have longer lasting effects on the offender. This may include a criminal record that could prevent future employment or a healthy relationship. Historically well-known observations show that men commit more offenses than women because men have lower levels of self-control than women (Piquero, A & Tibbetts, S, 2002). ). This observation was due to the biased thinking that a woman cannot commit a crime due to her maternal nature and her thinking of not wanting to bring shame to her family. However, as our understanding of criminal theory has evolved, so has our understanding of offenders. It is now recognized that women can commit minor offenses as well as heinous crimes, which goes against the original idea that women are incapable of committing crimes. This understanding allowed the theory to develop with the knowledge that people will commit a crime if the reward they get from it is greater than the punishment. It is now known that this is due to various reasons such as a person's situation, mental stability or circumstances. in which they commit a crime. However, two theorists Nagin and Paternoster (1993) claimed that social pathologies, 106(1), 113-129.