UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZED CRIME FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY

Year 2020, Volume: 7 Issue: 14, 147 - 171, 22.12.2020

Furkan Yıldız

Abstract

Individuals, who are selfish in essence, act to maximize their own utility. This behavioral feature becomes functional when the potential benefit to be obtained by individuals, after making a cost-benefit calculation, is higher than the potential costs to arise. Economically, the "rational choice theory", which explains the basis of human behavior in this way, has become used for analyzing the participation of individuals in crime since the middle of the 20th century. In the light of the basic approach of this analysis, this study first evaluates the rational choice theory and examines the criminological interpretation of this theory. Later on, the study analyzes the definition of organized crime in the literature and international norms, which has been on the agenda of almost every state and supra-state organization. Since the study aims to analyze organized crime with the rational choice theory as its main purpose, it makes evaluations towards this purpose as a last step. Organized crime, whose primary purpose is to secure financial gain, is seen as an economic enterprise that commits a crime by considering the interests of the group or organization by evaluating it on a large scale, unlike the crimes committed individually. With these features, rational choice theory, which contains parts of many theories criminologically, has become the main approach for this study.

RASYONEL SEÇİM TEORİSİ İLE ORGANİZE SUÇLARI ANLAMAK

Abstract

Özünde bencil olan insan, kişisel faydasını maksimize etmek için hareket etmektedir. Bu davranışsal özellik, bireylerin fayda maliyet hesaplaması yapmasının ardından elde edeceği potansiyel faydanın, doğacak potansiyel maliyetlerden yüksek olduğu zaman işlevsellik kazanır. İktisadi olarak, insan davranışlarının temelini bu şekilde açıklayan “rasyonel seçim teorisi” 20.yy’ın ortalarından itibaren bireylerin suça katılımını da analiz eder hale gelmiştir. Bu analizin temel yaklaşımı ışığında, bu çalışma, öncelikle, rasyonel seçim teorisini değerlendirmiş ve bu teorinin kriminolojik yorumunu incelemiştir. Daha sonra çalışma, yerel boyuttan küresel boyuta geçen ve hemen hemen her devletin ve devlet üstü örgütün gündemine girer hale gelen organize suç konusu ile ilgili literatürdeki ve uluslararası normlardaki tanımlarını analiz etmiştir. Çalışma, asıl amaç olarak organize suç konusunu, rasyonel seçim teorisi ile analiz etmeyi hedeflediğinden son adım olarak bu amaca yönelik değerlendirmeler yapmıştır. Temel amaçlarının başında, finansal kazanç elde etmek olan organize suç, bireysel işlenen suçlardan farklı olarak, büyük ölçekli olarak değerlendirerek grubun veya örgütün menfaatlerini gözeterek suç işleyen iktisadi bir girişim olarak görülmektedir. Bu özellikleriyle, kriminolojik olarak birçok teorinin parçalarını içinde bulunduran rasyonel seçim teorisi, bu çalışma için temel yaklaşım haline gelmiştir. 

Keywords

Rasyonel Seçim Teorisi, Kısmi Rasyonellik, Organize Suçlar, Kriminoloji

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