learning theories

• Differential association theory

  Theory developed by Edwin Sutherland that criminal behaviour is learned through interaction and conversation with others
• 9 precepts of Sutherland's differential association theory

  • Criminal behaviour is learned
  • Learned through interaction and conversation with others (supported by storytelling)
  • Takes place in small and intimate groups
  • Includes sharing insights and techniques
  • Motives are learnt
  • Become delinquent
  • Learning experiences vary
  • Learning criminal behaviour is like learning anything else (same mechanism)
  • Can stem from the same needs and values
• Differential association theory

  • Criminal attitudes can be learned socially and can be unlearned
  • Kids can be rehabilitated
  • Crime is learned through exposure to pro-crime attitudes and behaviours in the family
  • People will imitate and learn from their family
  • They will internalise deviant norms/values and pro-crime attitudes
• Research supporting differential association theory

  • Cambridge study (followed 411 males from age 8, 44% had conviction by end)
  • Osborne and West (1982) study (40% of sons of convicted criminals had conviction by 18, 13% of sons of non-criminals)
• Operant conditioning

  We learn through reinforcement and consequences of behaviour, not influenced by biology but shaped by experiences and others' experiences
• Types of reinforcement in operant conditioning

  • Positive reinforcement (reward)
  • Negative reinforcement (taking away something unpleasant)
  • Punishment (reduce likelihood of behaviour being repeated)
• Positive reinforcement


  • Money, feeling high off drugs, status
• Formal sanctions (punishment)

  • Prison time, fines, community service
• Informal sanctions (punishment)

  • Family/friends turning their back on you
• Skinner box

  Experiments with rats to see if their behaviour could be controlled through positive and negative reinforcement
• Social learning theory

  Criminality is caused by observing criminality in others and imitating it, especially when they have higher status and are respected
• Bobo doll study

  • Children aged 2-6 watched adult punching and shouting at bobo doll, children who observed adult being rewarded were more likely to perform aggressive behaviours
• Sutherland's Theory advantages

  • Research to support claims (Farrington 1995, followed 411 males from the age of 8, by the end of the study 45% had at least one conviction)
• Skinner's Theory strengths

  • Research support suggested that positive and negative reinforcement in animals changed behaviours
  • It is a scientific study that has established cause and effect
  • Has applications to treatment - token economics
• Bandura's Theory strengths


  • One of the first to suggest that learning did not need to involve direct experience - can be learned indirectly from watching others and observing their reward or punishment
  • Research by Bandura supports the role of social learning in crimes such as aggression
• Sutherland's theory limitations

  • Cannot explain why some people who are raised in a pro crime family do not go onto commit crime
  • Cannot explain why people commit crimes despite not being exposed to it by family or friends
  • Hard to measure the exposure to pro-crime attitudes - not possible to tell how much exposure leads to criminality
  • Not likely that exposure to pro-crime attitudes alone can lead to criminality (poverty and educational achievement are factors that play a part)
• skinner's theory weaknesses

  • Based upon animals - humans are more complex and have other social factors impacting on behaviour
  • How does it explain why people commit crime in the first place?
• Bandura's theory weaknesses

  • Is deterministic - it assumes we have no free will over our behaviour
  • Anomalies that cannot be explained - some people observe crime (domestic abuse) do not imitate it however other who commit crime (tax evasion) may never have observed it in others