Understanding why people commit crimes is one of the central concerns of criminology. Do most criminals act rationally after weighing the costs of the crime? Is it ever society's fault if an individual commits a crime? Mental illnesses or even genetics affect the likelihood that a person will live a life of crime. Over the years, many people have developed theories to try to answer these questions. Indeed, the number of theories about why people commit crimes sometimes seems to equal the number of criminologists. I will explore these questions and much more in the following article. The foundation of classical criminology is the central belief that individual criminals engage in rational decision making in choosing how to commit crime (Williams & McShane, 2010). This view is based on two further assumptions: that individuals have free will; and that individuals are driven by hedonism, the maximization of pleasure and the minimization of pain. These ideas were important as they shifted the focus towards punishing people's offending behavior rather than towards punishing the individual's social or physical characteristics in and of themselves. As a result, this change has had an enormous influence on changing attitudes towards punishment and towards the purpose of law and the legal system. Classic ideas about crime and punishment can be found in the works of numerous different writers. The writings of Cesare Beccaria (1738–94) and Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), however, were particularly influential. According to the emerging view of the social contract, human beings originally lived in a state of nature, grace, or innocence, and their escape from this state was the result of the application of reason. It was argued that there was a question… halfway through the paper… The extent to which this is a legitimate evidence-based concern is a moot point. It is difficult for anyone to grasp the concept or be able to understand why people commit heinous crimes or engage in criminal activities. We as human beings are all capable of committing or engaging in delinquent behavior. What stops a person from deciding to engage in deviant behavior or choosing not to commit any crime? We may never truly know or understand the real reasons why some people make decisions like these every day. Early philosophers and scientists carefully examined and dug deep into the criminal justice system and the behavior of criminals using theories to explain criminal behavior. With these views they were able to develop multiple distinctive theories that explained different views on why people decided to commit crimes.