This theory has its roots in the classical theory developed by the Italian social thinker Cesare Beccaria. His utilitarian approach strongly influenced the criminal justice system and was extremely enthusiastic and accepted in the United States and throughout Europe. During the 1960s, Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker, along with political scientist James Q. Wilson, who wrote Thinking About Crime, helped evolve the classical theory into a more modern theory based on intelligent trial and criminal decision making. Which ultimately formed what we know today as rational choice theory. Of course, this theory is based “on the idea that crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the potential offender weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act.” ” (Siegel, 2001). But even with this theory personal factors were inserted into his actions such as the thrill and simple enjoyment of raping and killing these women. Ridgeway clearly saw both sides of his choices, from being a suspect to beginning and then abandoning him as such years later, returning to being the Green River murderer convicted of the 48 murders. Another thing that is measured before the act is committed is the availability of the target and obviously during this period in Seattle he was a pimp. From what Battistoni says "'the most rampant child prostitution in the country', in the 1980s according to the National Association for Missing and Exploited Children" and according to the Seattle Police Department "more than 2,000 prostitution arrests in a single year, an all-time record” which shows the availability of girls From the begging to the end of the decades-long Green River Killers spree, he had plenty of desperate girls but the key factor was that no one would have them. search for a while (Battistoni). So from this high era of