2.2 Learning Theories of Criminality

• Operant Conditioning?


  People learn through the consequences of their behaviour. If our behaviour produces a good consequence, we learn to do it again. If it produces a bad one, we learn to stop.
• Reinforcement?


  Positive: something good starts as a consequence of our behaviour.

  Negative: something bad stops as a consequence of our behaviour.

  Punishment: something bad starts as a result of our behaviour.
• How does OC apply to criminality?


  Criminals will commit crime when it produces a good outcome for them. This could be the addition of a reward e.g money or the removal of a negative thing such as poverty (negative reinforcement). Criminality occurs when the overall balance of good events exceeds punishments for the individual.
• Strengths (OC)?


  strategies used in prison shows it can be applied to change behaviour of prisoners suggesting criminality may be down to learning through consequences.
• Weaknesses (OC)?

  Theory is based off research in animals. Humans may be more complex and think about actions more. Their behaviour is more complex than simply reward and punishment. This theory ignores internal factors such as biology.
• Social learning theory?


  Focuses on the learning of crime through watching over people commit crime. Bandura proposed that all criminality is caused by observing criminality on other people and imitating it, especially when the people we observe (models) have a higher status than us or are people we respect and admire.

  Criminality is learnt from seeing other people be rewarded for it (vicarious reinforcement)

  People are observed to have positive reinforcement for committing crime, so we are likely to imitate it.
• Banduras Bobo Doll study?


  Found that children will imitate aggressive behaviour when they observe it in others and even more so when they see other people being rewarded for it.
• Strength - SLT?

  Research supports the role of social learning in crimes such as aggression. Children aged 2-6 years watched a film of an adult punching and shouting at a bobo doll. Children who watched the adult get rewarded were more likely to perform the behaviours. This supports his theory of behaviour being learned indirectly.
• Weakness - SLT?


  It ignores biological factors such as genes and hormones. In the study, boys showed more aggressive than girls which suggests testosterone affects behaviours such as aggression as well as exposure to violence.
• Weakness - SLT 2?


  It doesnt explain where criminals learn the skills and techniques from.
• Theory


  - proposed criminality is learnt through exposure to pro crime attitudes and behaviours in the family.

  - people are likely to imitate criminal acts and can learn criminal behaviour and techniques from those around them.

  - they learn pro crime attitudes through socialisation and internalise deviant norms and values.

  - pro crime attitudes are likely to make an individual learn there is value in crime, and the individual will grow up to adopt a pro crime attitude themsleves and be more likely to commit crime.

  - criminal behaviour is learnt through communicating with others.

  - this occurs within intimate personal groups.
• Supporting Study


  - Farrington et al 2006: identified family criminality as a risk factor for later offending.
• Strengths


  - There is evidence to support it. Farringtons longitudinal study examining the risks factors of offending, family criminality was identified to be important. This supports sutherland theory of offending.
• Weaknesses


  - it is hard to measure exposure to pro crime attitudes, which means it is hard to tell how much exposure leads to criminality.

  - it is also not likely exposure to pro crime attitudes and behaviours alone can lead to criminality.

  - similarities within families in terms of offending may not be caused by transferring attitudes alone. It may be a result of genetic transference.