Agenda

1
Agenda

• Review Social Structure Theories
• Especially Anomie/Strain Theories
• Start Social Process Theories

2
Social Structural Theories

• Aspect of the social structure is related to
  crime
• Tend to be macro-level theories
• Social Disorganization
• Chicago School
• Sampson and friends (Collective efficacy)
• Anomie
• Merton (both macro and micro themes)
• GST (sort of a misfit here)
• Institutional Anomie (Country level theory)

3
Social Process Theory

• Focus on crime unfolds over time (through a
  process)
• How individuals interact with the environment
• Process of Socialization

4
Socialization

• ? How a person learns the proper way to live
• ? Includes norms and values that guide human
  behavior
• ? Primary sources social institutions
• ? Education
• ? Religion
• ? Family
• ? Peer group

5
Social process theory traditions

• ? Differential association/social learning
• ? Adequate socialization toward the incorrect
  norms and values
• ? Informal social control
• ? Inadequate socialization
• ? Labeling theory
• ? Socialized to accept delinquent identity as
  result of criminal justice system

6
BEST CHARTEVER
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Differential Association and Social Learning
Theory

• Differential Association (Edwin Sutherland)
• Differential Reinforcement (Burgess and Akers)
• Social learning (Ronald Akers)

8
Differential Association

• ? Developed by Edwin Sutherland
• ? Focus on cultural transmission of delinquent
  values
• ? Akers was student (and later a professor) at
  the University of Chicago
• Disputed the term social disorganization
  (reframed as differential social organization)
• Asks a Chicago School question based on Shaw
  and McKays theory

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Differential Association

• Criminal Behavior is learned
• Negatively, this means it is not invented
• Communication within intimate groups
• Learning involves techniques and attitudes
• Attitudes expresses as definitions of the
  situation
• A person becomes delinquent because of an excess
  of definitions favorable to law violation
• The process involves the same learning process as
  all other behavior

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Differential Association

• ? Criticism
• ? Vague concepts and phrasings
• ? Difficult to test empirically

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Techniques of Neutralization

• ? Developed by Sykes and Matza
• ? First good attempt to measure Sutherlands
  definitions
• Documented common rationalizations (excuses) for
  delinquency among a sample of delinquents

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Techniques of Neutralization

• ? Denial of responsibility
• ? Denial of injury
• ? Denial of victim
• ? Condemnation of the condemners
• ? Appeal to higher loyalties

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Techniques of Neutralization

• Definitions or Something Else??
• ? Sociology criticism ? Such attitudes do not
  actually cause criminal behavior.
• ? Rationalization is utilized only after the
  offense is committed when behavior is called into
  question.
• ? Psychologist (Behaviorism) To the extent that
  these rationalizations neutralize guilt, they
  reinforce behavior (Negative Reinforcement)

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Social Learning Theory

• ? Developed by Ronald Akers
• ? Early version differential reinforcement
• ? Revision of differential association theory
• ? Added concepts of operant conditioning and
  imitation (observational learning) to explain how
  behavior was learned

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Social Learning Theory

• Key concepts
• ? Differential associations
• ? Definitions
• ? Differential reinforcement
• ? Imitation

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Social Learning Theory (Akers)
Exposure to definitions or different role
models
Balance of definitions or role models produces
initial behaviors
Positive or negative reinforcement
Definitions Behaviors Role models
R(/-)
DA
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Social Learning Theory

• ? Empirical research measures
• ? Attitudes that support crime (definitions)
• ? Exposure to delinquent peers/family members
  (differential associations)
• ? Rewards or punishment for delinquency
  (differential reinforcement)

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Delinquent Attitudes

• Same as procriminal attitudes,
  neutralizations, stinking thinking
• In pretty much every test of crime or deviance,
  they strongly predict offending.
• As noted, there is debate about whether this is
  causal (vs. after the fact excuses)

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Delinquent Peer Association

• ? Most common measure of social learning theory
• ? Connection between the proportion of persons
  friends who were delinquent and delinquency
• Mapping of friendship networks, proportion of
  pro-social friends vs. antisocial friends
• ? Nonsocial learning interpretation
• ? Measurement issues, Delinquent youths attract
  one another as peers
• Evidence It likely goes both ways, but its
  pretty clear that peers have a some causal
  influence on future behavior

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Role of Reinforcement Punishment

• ? Clear that people do respond to rewards and
  punishments in their environment
• Behaviorists operant conditioning works
• Deterrence (formal punishment) could be absorbed
  into social learning theory as simply one form of
  punishment

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Social Learning Theory

• ? Empirical research findings
• ? Strong relationships between measures of social
  learning and a wide range of outcomes
• ? Smoking
• ? Computer crimes
• ? Gang-related delinquency
• ? Other forms of criminal or delinquent activity

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Social Learning Theory

• Criticism
• ? Unclear the exact role that delinquent peers
  and delinquent attitudes play in generating
  delinquency and crime
• Are they really causes?
• Evidence from rehabilitation programs suggests
  that they at least part of the relationship is
  causal (look at the next slide Jeff)

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Policy ImplicationsSocial Learning Theory

• ? Use the principles of learning to
• ? Reduce access to delinquent peers
• ? Confront and change antisocial attitudes
• ? Change the balance of reinforcement so that it
  supports prosocial behavior
• ? Behavioral/cognitive restructuring programs