Abstract: Criminal behavior is a result of criminal decision-making. Based on the principles of cognitive psychology, the studies on criminal decision-making aim to explain the decision-making process and the influencing factors. The output of the research can be used as theoretical basis of making criminal justice policies and crime prevention system. There have been three kinds of theories of criminal choice: Crime rational choice models, criminal expected utility model, and the criminal prospect theory model. The research methods include psychophysical method, process tracing, interview, projective testing, and crime statistics, etc. In the future, further study would focus on the rational issue of crime decisions, and strengthen the confirmatory research.

Key words: criminal decision-making, rationality and irrationality, theoretical models, research methods.