Criminal Behaviour: Social Psychological Explanations Flashcards
What was the first social psychological explanation?
Differential Association Theory
What are the three paragraphs in an essay about differential association theory?
- What is learned
- Who is it learned from
- How is it learned
What is learned paragraph
What is learned which causes criminal behaviour to develop?
- Pro-criminal attituded are learned from social situations
- A person socialises into a particular group, they are exposed to that group’s values and attitudes towards the law
- The group may have their own defined set of morals~e.g as a group they may decide what laws are okay to break and what law must be follwed
If the pro-criminal attitude outweighs the anti-criminality attitude
Who is criminal behaviour/pro-criminal attitude learned from?
Pears, family members or role models
According to social learning theory, what makes someone likely to be a role model?
- Desirable e.g status
- Identification~similar e.g age,race or gender
Explain how people can also learn criminal behaviour/pro-criminal attitude from their neighbourhood
The degree to which a local community support or oppose criminal behaviour determines the difference in crime rates in that area compared to others
Groups may not be criminal but still hold deviant attitudes
How is criminal behaviour/pro-criminal attitude learned?
Sutherland did not specify; however, it is likely to be a result of direct and indirect operant conditioning
* Direct=reinforcement/punishment for criminal behaviour
* Indircet=vicarious reinforcement~behaviour is a result of observing and imitating role models when they’re succesful in criminal activities
How do the the different types of reinforcement explain the increases in criminal behaviour?
- Positive reinforcement=recievs a reward for the crime they comitted which increases the chance of the behaviour being repeated
What are the three paragprahs for gender socialisation explanation for crime?
Patterns of socialisation, Role models and differences in social control
How does this affect criminal behaviour
Describe how socialisation patterns differ between boys and girls
- Boys are socialised in a way that reinforces criminal behaviour and encourages it
- Example:Boys may be encouraged to play fight with others whilst girls are not
- As a result boys become more risk taking and agressive=Increases the risk of violent and impulsive crimes
What is the social learning theory?
Behaviour is learned by observing and imittating role models which most often have gender as a shared charactersitic
How is gendered behaviour learned and give an example?
Children learn genered behaviour from their parents of the same gender e.g. boys will immitate their father and girls will immitate their mother
What is an example of how a lack of a male role model can affect boys?
- Boys will socialise by rejecting behaviour showed by their mother e.g. caring/emotionally supportive
- This leads to more agressive
- This viewpoint is supportied by young men joining male peer groups and street gangs
Explain how girls are more controlled as controlled
Girls are often socialised away from crime~Society imposes more control over girls,also causing stricter parenting of girls
What is double jeoprady
Explain how women have fewer opportunities to commit crime
- Women have greater time and movement constrictions than men
- Women risk ‘double jeoprady’~guilty of rejecting society’s norms and value + rejecting their own feminity
