Exposure to Delinquent Peers

1
Exposure to Delinquent Peers

• Why S.L. measure?
• Strength of Relationship
• Rs .2 - .4 are common
• Criticisms

• Measuring delinquency twice
• Causal (time) ordering (birds of a feather

2
Pro-Criminal Attitudes

• Why a measure of S.L.?
• Strength of relationship? Rs gt .4
• Criticism

CAUSAL ORDERING Rationalization are simply
post-hoc excuses, they do not cause crime, but
only allow the criminal to wiggle out of trouble
3
Social Learning and the Life-course

• When do the concepts of social learning
  (Akers/Sutherland) theory operate?
• Gerald Pattersons Social-Interactional Theory
• Focus on early childhood, and rewards/punish
• Definitions and Imitation not central
• Rather, Parental Efficacy

4
Gerald Patterson (OSLS)

• 1982 Coercion Theory
• 1992 Social- Interactional Approach
• Oregon Social Learning Center
• Very Applied Work with families with young,
  antisocial boys.

5
Pattersons Social-Interactional Model
Family Management
Outcomes
Context

• Family Structure
• SES
• Difficult Infant
• High Crime
• Neighborhood
• Divorce/Stress
• Unskilled
• Grandparents

• Parental Efficacy
• Monitor
• Recognize
• Discipline
• R
• Problem Solving

Antisocial Child Social Incompetence
6
Later in the Theory

• Antisocial Child Affects the Environment
• Peer Rejection
• Poor Academic Performance
• Parental Rejection
• This leads to further problems
• Deviant Peer Group
• School Failure
• Delinquency

7
Beyond Surveys

• Establishing causation via experiments with
  offenders
• What is the policy implication of S.L.T.?
• Measure both intermediate objectives and
  long-term outcomes

8
Patterson and OSLC research

• Recruited high risk children
• Stealers, fire-starters, truants
• Focus on training parents
• Also cognitive/behavioral methods to build social
  competence
• Able to substantially reduce delinquency, improve
  school performance

9
Don Andrews (1980)

• Group treatment for Prisoners and Probationers
• Manipulated content (definitions), group leaders
  (quality of role model), and self-management
• Reductions in recidivism ranged from 10-25
• Support for the Sutherland/Akers Tradition

10
Achievement Place

• Houses with a married couple serving as parents
• Served as role models
• Token economy verbal physical praise
• Peer groups (positive peer culture)
• Evaluations are mixed (some positive)
• Tend to lose positive effects after release
• Be wary of peer culture programs

11
Cognitive Programs

• Changing what criminals think
• Criminal Thinking Errors
• (Rationalizations, Definitions)
• Changing how criminals think
• Anger management
• Prosocial Skills
• SUPPORT FOR BANDURA, PATTERSON

12
SUMMARY OF APPLIED RESEARCH

• Cognitive and/or Behavioral Programs are the best
  bet for reducing Recidivism
• Meta-analysis findings are impressive
• Average reduction in recidivism across 45
  studies?
• gt30

13
SUMMARY OF S.L.T

• GOOD
• 1. Substantial Empirical Support (survey and
  experimental)
• 2. Useful Policy Implications
• 3. Scope and Parsimony
• BAD
• 1. Causal ordering?
• 2. Is all antisocial behavior learned?

14
Review of Social Learning Theories

• Bandura
• How aggression is learned
• operant conditioning, cognitive, vicarious
• Sutherland/Akers
• How deviant values are transmitted
• operant conditioning, vicarious learning
• Antisocial values (definitions) are central
• Patterson
• Early childhood, family processes and context