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