1. Learning Theories

2. CULTURAL/SUBCULTURAL IDEAS & BELIEFS  BEHAVIOR? -OR- SOCIAL STRUCTURE  CULTURE/BELIEFS  BEHAVIOR? –What crimes can be learned? –What behaviors that support crime can be learned? –How does this learning take place? –What cultural supports for this learning are present? –Link with strain theory: Structural conditions may set the stage where learning takes place

3. Learning Habits and knowledge that develop from interaction with the environment: Not instinctual or biological Current learning theories based on association –Classical conditioning – passive learning Associating bell with meat ultimately produces salivation just on sound of the bell –Operant conditioning – active learning Organism learns how to get what it wants Press a lever to get food – associate lever with food –Social Learning – active learning + cognition Direct - reinforcement through rewards and punishments Vicarious - reinforcement by observing what happens to others Criminological Theories - Crime is a “normally learned behavior”

4. Learning Crime through imitation - Tarde Crime is learned, just like other behaviors People imitate each other depending on their closeness to each other –More imitation in cities - “fashion” –Slower in rural areas - “custom” –Inferior imitates the superior Vagrancy, drunkenness, murder began as crimes committed by royalty Crimes in rural areas imitate city behaviors Newer fashions displace the old (shooting instead of knifing)

5. Learning Crime through differential association (Sutherland) Crime is learned, just like other behaviors Criminal behavior learned from persons who transmit ideas or “definitions” that favor law-breaking Two basic elements of the theory –Content of what is learned techniques of committing the crime the underlying drives, rationalizations and attitudes –Process by which learning takes place Learning occurs in intimate groups Motives and drives for behavior originate in attitudes towards legal codes by a person’s social group –“Normative conflict” – social and group norms may be in conflict –“Definitions” can be favorable/unfavorable to lawbreaking –Delinquency is caused by an excess of definitions favorable to lawbreaking

6. Views on differential association Criticisms –Focus on juvenile crime committed in groups (Gluecks) Perhaps delinquents simply “flock together” Not all who associate with delinquents become delinquent –Testability How to identify and count the definitions favorable and unfavorable to law in each setting? –Cannot apply to all kinds of crime –Difficult to explain differences in crime rates Geographical Demographic Defenses –Strength, intensity of associations vary –Cognitive component to learning –Juveniles with more delinquent friends commit more crimes –Juveniles who report more definitions favorable to law-breaking commit more crime –CJ system controlled by upper classes

7. Cultural and Subcultural Theories

8. Walter B. Miller Learning to be delinquent from a gang Lower and middle-class cultures are distinct –Middle-class values achievement –Lower-class has different concerns, which are a breeding ground for crime: toughness, smartness (street sense), excitement, fate, autonomy –Male role models often absent, so an exaggerated sense of masculinity results –Crowding and domestic conditions send boys to the street, where they form gangs

9. Wolfgang and Ferracutti Learning violence from a violent subculture Violence is a cultural expression for lower socioeconomic status males Many homicides result from very trivial events –Defending honor of relatives, neighborhood Significance of an event (e.g., a jostle) is differentially perceived by races and socioeconomic classes –Persons who respond as socially expected are admired - those who do not are put down –Causes of “passion” behavior are ideas - norms, values, expectations - that originate in social conditions Don’t focus on the origin of subculture –Worry instead about the ideas it generates –Remedy is to disperse and assimilate the subcultures

10. Elijah Anderson Learning violence in a black “street” subculture Criminogenic environment –High concentration of poverty, Declining legitimate, increasing illegitimate jobs –Drug and gun availability, High crime and violence –Declining welfare payments, No hope for the future –Lack of faith in C.J. system Code of the street –Cultural adaptation to living in declining circumstances –“Respect”, “disrespect” and “manhood” –Spreads to “decent” children through contagion and necessity Theory is partly cultural, like Wolfgang & Ferracutti; partly structural, like Merton

11. Akers – Learning through differential reinforcement Behaviors can be learned as well as ideas Differential association – Behaviors can be learned socially, from others and from “reference groups” whose definitions are favorable or unfavorable to lawbreaking Differential reinforcement – Behaviors can be learned socially and no- socially, according to their actual or anticipated consequences (“differential reinforcement”) –Learned socially through approval/disapproval by others –Learned non-socially (e.g., getting sick/high on drugs) –Learned vicariously by observing consequences of behavior for others Once criminal behavior begins, it continues if reinforced either socially or non-socially Structural conditions (inequality, strain) affect a person’s differential associations, definitions, models and reinforcements