Criminal Behaviour - Social Flashcards
What are the two social-psychological explanations of criminality?
Differential association and Gender Socialisation
What does Differential Association propose and who came up with this theory?
Unlike other explanations, differential association theory argues that criminal behaviour is learnt solely from our social groups / environment.
The theory of differential association was proposed by Sutherland (1939) and states that criminals are not born but made. We all have our own definitions of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour that are usually in line with the law.
If the definitions in favour of criminal behaviour outweigh those against criminal behaviour, then the individual is likely to engage in crime
What are the three main factors of how criminal attitudes are learnt
Attitudes: A child learns attitudes towards crime and a potential criminal is someone who has learned pro-criminal attitudes.
Types of Crime: A child will learn which types of crime are desirable. They may learn drug use is acceptable but violent crime is not.
Specific Methods: A child may learn techniques for committing crime, an older brother may teacher a younger sibling how to hotwire and steal a car. Or what to say when questioned by police about drug use for instance.
How does sunderland propose that someone learns these attitudes towards crime?
Sutherland would suggest we learn these through our intimate personal groups – These can be our family and peers or even our community / neighbourhood.
The intimate personal group may not even necessarily be criminal bit may just hold deviant attitudes or acceptance of crime.
What determines if we learn behaviours from intimate personal groups?
Sutherland states it comes from three factors of, frequency, duration and intensity of the associations that determines their degree of influence on a person.
What is meant by ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ operant conditioning?
Direct Operant Conditioning is where we learn through our own experiences of rewards and punishment what behaviours should and should not be repeated.
Indirect Operant Conditioning is where we learn through observing other people (role models) what behaviour should and should not be repeated.
what are the nine principles of differential association
Criminal behaviour is learnt rather than inherited. Criminal behaviour is learned through association with others.
This association with intimate personal groups.
The learning includes, motives, rationalisations and attitudes, techniques.
This learning is directional can be either for or against the crime.
If the number of favourable attitudes outweighs the unfavourable ones, then the person will become an offender.
The frequency, duration and intensity of such associations will determine the degree of influence on behaviour.
Criminal behaviour is learned through the same process as any other behaviour
General need for e.g money is not sufficient explanation for crime because not everyone with those needs turns to crime
What are the two studies that support the Differential Association theory and name a weakness for both
Key Study: is Osborne & West (1982)
In this study they found that where the father had a criminal conviction, 40% of the sons had also acquired one by age 18, compared to only 13% of sons with non-criminal fathers
Weakness: Lack of Control over extraneous variable of shared biology between parent and child.
Key Study: Matthews (1968)
Juvenile delinquents were more likely to report having peers who engage in criminal activity than non-delinquents.
Weakness: Doesn’t consider alternative factors one alternative major contribution is the factor of a self-fulfilling prophecy, for instance someone associates around criminals may be labelled as a criminal before they have even committed a crime, causing a self-fulfilling prophecy where they commit crime as they are already viewed as a criminal regardless of their actions.
Two strengths of Differential association theory
Strength 1)
The theory can be linked to a method of modification as a way to help society prevent crime. As DAT states criminal attitudes can be learnt through association, this also means they can be unlearnt through new association, This would involve removing offenders from their pro=crime intimate personal groups and surrounding them with non-offenders or attempting to change the attitudes and behaviours of the members of their interpersonal group. For instance, rehabilitation could be targeted towards neighbourhoods where people with more deviant motives live. This is a strength as this can be used to bring down crime rates. Keeping the public safer and saving the government millions which can be used elsewhere.
Strength 2)
it has high face validity, everyone knows through their own experiences that friends and family especially hold huge influence over own actions as we will often replicate what we see them doing, often without even knowing. So, the idea of differential association that negative interpersonal groups influence us towards deviance and crime is very easy to believe. This is a strength of the theory as it means authorities like the police force will be more likely to consider the effects of DAT when devising methods of crime prevention.
Two Weaknesses of Differential association theory
Weakness 1)
The theory is deterministic and underestimates the power of free will. This is because the theory suggests that someone who associates with offenders will automatically become a criminal no matter what simply because of their association with that person. This is a weakness as it can lead to negative ethical implications on society for instance it could lead to heavy stereotyping of individuals who come from criminal backgrounds where they could be denied opportunities on the back of it. Which in-turn could lead to more crime, as people feel they might as well commit crime if they are going to be viewed as a criminal regardless of their actions. This is called a self-fulfilling prophecy,
Weakness 2)
The theory could be considered reductionist. Sutherland stated that associating and interacting with criminals is enough to cause criminal behaviour. However, not everyone who grows up surrounded by criminals will necessarily become one by default. On top of this, many people who do commit crime have not been brought up in a criminal environment, meaning other factors like personality or genes might also play a factor in criminality. While socialisation is undeniably a large factor in criminality it cannot be a complete theory for crime.
What statistic suggests gender solicitation players a role in criminality?
Studies show that 96.2% of individuals in prison are male. Which suggest that a risk factor for criminal behaviour is someone’s gender. This topic covers the different reasons why males may be so much more predisposed to criminality over females.
What are the three elements of Gender Solicitation?
Socialisation
Social Learning Theory
Social Control
What is meant by ‘socialisation’ and how does this apply to gender?
Socialisation is the process where people learn the norms, customs and skills necessary to integrate ourselves into society.
Gender identity is learned from socialisation within a culture.
Sutherland (1949) argued that the different patterns of socialisation experienced by boys and girls reinforces behaviour of criminality in boys (playfighting) and discourage it in girls.
In Socialisation, Sutherland claims that there are three key differences in the way boys and girls are brought up as an explanation for the different behaviours - what are these
Boys encouraged to be risk takers
Girls more closely supervised and controlled than boys (curfew for instance)
Society expectations of girls to be more conforming than boys.
These differences in socialisation become ingrained over time which results in more young men going out and committing crime.
What is Social learning theory and how does it explain gender stereotypes?
Theory by Bandura that states that behaviours are learnt through observation and imitation of role models.
There are three ways the child is encouraged into gender stereotypes.
Influence of Same Sex Parent
Operant Conditioning (punishment for not conforming / reward for conforming)
Vicarious Reinforcement (watching other people get rewarded for gender conforming behaviour)
