Crime is learned, like other behaviors One acquires habits and knowledge by interacting

with the environment Not instinctual or biological

Focus on content and process of learning What crimes can be learned? How? What behaviors that support crime can be learned? What in a culture supports this learning?

Current learning theories based on association Classical conditioning – passive learning

▪ Associating bell with meat produces salivation when bell rings 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

Learning occurs in intimate social groups Criminal behavior is learned from persons who

transmit ideas or “definitions” that promote law-breaking Attitudes towards legal codes by a person’s social group

are important “Normative conflict” – norms of group and society

may be in conflict “Definitions” – how members of a group look on legal

codes: are they to be observed, or not? Which laws can be violated? Why?

Content of learning Criminal techniques Underlying drives, rationalizations and attitudes

A person’s associations with criminal and non-criminal patterns of thought and conduct differ in frequency, duration, priority and intensity Delinquency is caused by an excess of definitions favorable to

lawbreaking

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7390540n

Criticisms It focuses on juvenile crime committed in groups

▪ Perhaps delinquents simply “flock together”

▪ Not all who associate with delinquents become delinquent Hard to test: How can we identify and count the definitions

favorable and unfavorable to lawbreaking in each setting? Cannot apply to all kinds of crime Difficult to use to explain differences in crime rates in different

places and between different demographic groups Defenses

Strength, intensity of associations vary It includes a cognitive (active processing) component in learning Those with more delinquent friends do commit more crimes Those with more definitions favoring lawbreaking commit more

crime

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 non-socially, according to their actual or anticipated consequences 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

How persons become violent criminals

Based on Athens’ observations growing up in a violent environment

Theory developed through in-depth interviews with 58 prisoners

Four stages

Brutalization - victim of intra-familial violence, coached in violence

Belligerence - person decides to stop being the victim and take charge of their situation

Violent performances - person experiments with violence

▪ Failures may lead to exit from violence

▪ Successes may lead to more violence & acquiring weapons

Virulency - person treated differently by others, embraces image

▪ Sees violence as best response to many situations

Lower and middle-class cultures are distinct Middle-class emphasizes 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

http://youtu.be/eUgDbCZLPpY

Violence is a cultural expression for lowersocioeconomic 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 a subculture

Worry instead about the ideas it generates Remedy is to disperse and assimilate the

subcultures New York Times: Gunfire Still Rules the Night

Criminogenic environment High concentration of poverty Decline in legitimate jobs, increase in illegitimate

jobs Drugs, guns, crime and violence Declining welfare payments, no hope for the future Lack of faith in C.J. system

Code of civility respected by “decent” people has no value on the street

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 social/structural, like Merton

How do people “learn” to commit crime?

Sutherland: Crime is behavior that flows naturally from ideas and beliefs learned by associating with others

Akers and Athens basically agree, but extend the learning process to incorporate other factors, such as reinforcement and exposure to violence

If crime is a normal learned behavior, how society is structured and organized are important

Critical criminology: Those who set and define the rules and values get to define crime Social structure behavior

Learning theories (Matsueda): Social structure counts, but culturally-defined ideas and beliefs are a more proximate cause of crime

Social structure culture/subculture behavior