operant conditioning

• Operant conditioning is a type of learning that occurs when behaviour is followed by consequences (rewards/punishments) that influence whether it will be repeated again
• positive reinforcement: when behaviour results in something pleasant, such as a reward or compliment, that behaviour is strengthened and likely to be repeated.
• negative reinforcement: when behaviour results in something unpleasant being prevented, that behaviour is repeated and strengthened.
• if an offender is positively reinforced for a behaviour, they are likely to repeat it.
• if someone believes they wont be caught and the punishment is avoided, positive reinforcement is likely to influence.
• if someone considers a crime that is highly rewarding, it outweighs the fear of punishment, then they are likely to commit the crime.
• strengths:

  • research supporting. Skinner created a 'skinner box', where inside was a lever and a tube that delivered a food pellet to an animal when the lever was pressed. He placed a rat inside and it would wonder around the box aimlessly until it accidentily pressed the lever and delivered a food pellet. The food acted as a postive reinforcement and the rat learned to press the lever more often. This shows that it is possible criminality is learned through reinforcement too.
• strengths:

  • scientific theory, offering an objective way of explaining and tetsing how our behaviours change or are learned. They focus on what is observable, rather than internal mental process, whcih is what cognitive theories focus on.
• weakness:

  explanation mostly supported by animal research, meaning the results cannot be generalised to the human population very well. Crime may be a learned behaviour, but the human mind is very complex, therefore animal research is not able to help us understand the complexity of why people commit crime.