CRIM1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Sheldon Glueck, Operant Conditioning, Reinforcement
L7 Crim: Learning Theories
Tarde’s Laws of Imitation
Sutherland’s Differential Association
Aker’s Differential Reinforcement
Athens Theory of Violentization
Zimbardo’s Lucifer Effect
Subcultural Theories
CONSENSUS PERSPECTIVES VERUS CONFLICT PERSPECTIVES
Consensus Perspectives of crime: when we all agree what is a crime. We can condense that we shouldn’t
kill people. We are thinking of what causes a crime.
“Why does some neighbour experience more crimes than others?”
“What causes someone to be engaged in crime?”
Conflict Perspective: who decides what is a crime
How do determined what is a crime
Why are certain groups labelled as criminals?
How do we define crime?
Some shared assumptions of social process theories:
Human beings are best understood in relation to their environment.
Social processes (not the individual)—> lead to crime.
Criminality not innate, we all have the potential to commit crime as a result of learning, social ties, bonds, or
other social processes.
But, not everyone who is exposed to the same social/structural/biological conditions will commit crime.
People interpret and define their social reality and the meanings they attach to it in the process of interacting
with one another (symbolic interactionism).
SOCIAL PROCESS THEORIES= LEARNING THEORIES, CONTROL THEORIES, SUBCULTURAL THEORIES
Learning Theories
Focus on people, & what they do together.
Emphasis on the content of what is learned & the process of learning.
Examine the interactions in ‘micro’ social environments.
Pavlov’s Dogs and Classical Conditioning
Ultimately, demonstrated that behaviour can be learned by association.
1. Tarde’s Laws of Imitation
1. Law of close contact (more directly imposed to bad behaviour, more likely to be influenced)
2. Law of imitation of superiors by inferiors (more likely to imitate behaviour of people who we look up to)
3. Law of insertion (while technology may change over time, people will continue to learn ways to imitate
behaviour. Overtime new crime will be invented, new technology will come out. Example is the internet.)
Tarde’s theory of imitation lays the foundation for the idea that criminal behaviour could be a learned
behaviour. Examples of imitation of certain behaviours are very familiar to us.
2. Sutherland’s Differential Association
Sutherland – ‘Differential Association’ and the importance of group learning
Differential Association is able to explain professional thief as well as white collar criminal.
Asks why crime varies between groups, and why individuals become criminally active.
Argues:
criminal behaviour is ‘normal learned behaviour’ (not pathological).
social interaction & interpretation important.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
biology & psychology do not explain criminal behaviour.
cultural context of groups has a fundamental impact on crime.
Principles of Differential Association
1. Criminal behaviour is learned.
2. Criminal behaviour is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication.
3. The principal part of the learning of criminal behaviour occurs within intimate personal groups.
4. When criminal behaviour is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime, which
sometimes are very complicated, sometimes simple; (b) the specific direction of motives, drives,
rationalisation, and attitudes.
5. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of legal codes as favourable and
unfavourable.
6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favourable to violation of law over
definitions unfavourable to violation of the law. This is the principle of differential association.
7. Differential associations may vary in:
Frequency: number of associations
Duration: length of association
Priority: how closely related an individual is to an association
Intensity: how often the individual interacts with the association
8. The process of learning criminal behaviour by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns
involves all the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning. (learning how to commit crime is just
like learning any other thing like another language)
9. While criminal behaviour is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by them since
non-criminal behaviour is an expression of the same needs and values. (just motivation alone isn’t enough to
explain why people commit crime)
Example: Becker—Marijuana smoking
1. Learn techniques of marijuana smoking that can induce effects
2. Learn to perceive effects
3. Learn to define these effects as enjoyable
4. Must occur in peer groups that can provide favourable definitions of marijuana use, which is at odds with
normative definitions
Age-Crime curve perspective: Peak at 18-24 years old, then it goes down. Everyone agrees with this, but
criminologists disagree on WHY this happens.
Rise and drop of the curve could correspond to equally rapid increase and decrease in exposure to delinquent
peers, the importance of peer relations, and expressed loyalty to peers.
There is a strong inverse relationship between attachment to parents and having delinquent friends.
Changes in the life course (e.g., marriage) mark turning points from criminal to conventional behaviour,
discouraging crime by severing or weakening former criminal associations.
Critiques of Differential Associations
Sheldon Glueck:
Has anyone actually counted the number of definitions favourable to violation of law and definitions
unfavourable to violation of law, and demonstrated that in predelinquency experience of the vast majority of
delinquents and criminals, the former exceed the latter?
Donald Cressey:
-At the broadest level, differential association theory is untestable.
-Does not explain all types of crime
Expressive or compulsive crimes (short term triggers, those are not learned).
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Consensus perspectives of crime: when we all agree what is a crime. We can condense that we shouldn"t kill people. We are thinking of what causes a crime. Why does some neighbour experience more crimes than others? . What causes someone to be engaged in crime? . Con ict perspective: who decides what is a crime. Human beings are best understood in relation to their environment. Social processes (not the individual) > lead to crime. Criminality not innate, we all have the potential to commit crime as a result of learning, social ties, bonds, or other social processes. But, not everyone who is exposed to the same social/structural/biological conditions will commit crime. People interpret and de ne their social reality and the meanings they attach to it in the process of interacting with one another (symbolic interactionism). Social process theories= learning theories, control theories, subcultural theories. Focus on people, & what they do together.
