"Moving choice to center stage" in the relationship between the self and offending: Integrating symbolic interactionism and rational choice.

The article focuses on integrating symbolic interactionism (SI) and rational choice (RC) theories to explain how an individual's self-concept guides decisions to offend. It proposes a framework in which multiple structured role-identities, derived from SI, shape subjective expectations of the risks, costs, and rewards of offending, while an overarching "core self" influences preferences that weight these expectations, consistent with RC principles. This integration clarifies how the self operates at both situational and individual levels to affect offending behavior, addressing limitations in each theory when used separately. The model offers testable propositions linking role-identities to situational perceptions and the core self to stable offending patterns, providing a foundation for future empirical research on the self's role in criminal decision-making.