social psych explanations of criminal behaviour Flashcards
2 explanations?
- gender socialisation theory
- differential association theory
for gender socialisation what does sutherland argue ?
argues that different socialisation patterns experienced reinforces behaviour that may encourage criminality in boys and discourage it in girls.boys are encouraged to take risks and be tough and aggressive, giving them more of an incline to commit crime
social learning theory
proposed by Bandura he argues behaviour is learned through observing and imitating role models
what are the imitated role models tend to be ?
likely to be observed and imitated if they share similar characteristics as the child such as age or older, being likeable and same gender. children therefore will learn their gender behaviours from their parents.
parsons believes?
that theres clear gender roles and obvious gender roles within the nuclear family. the father performs leader roles whereas mothers perform more expressive roles such as giving emotional support
problem with social learning theory ?
in the typical household girls will have a readily avaliable role model whereas boys do not due to their fathers being absent or at work most of the time. this leads to boys rebelling against behaviour that is seen as feminine and compulsively pursue opportunities to demonstrate masculinity
what does the emphasis on aggression and toughness do to boys ?
encourages antisocial behaviour and delinquency.
if boys dont have a readily avaliable role model ?
they can experience anxiety about their identity and the solution to this is an all male friend group or street gangs. the idea of being tough and breaking rules and taking risks can help confirm the idea of masculinity
how are girls socialised away from criminal behaviour?
young girls aren’t allowed out as much as their brothers and are expected to do more chores. rather than roaming the streets they’re more likely to have sleepovers. as adult women they are restricted by domestic roles and have less opportunity to commit crimes
4 evaluation points ?
- theory has face validity
- statistics could be explained by biology
- chivalry hypothesis
- theory out of date
theory has face validity ?
95% of prison population is male so it seems logical to presume this could be due to gender socialisation, therefore this explanation has face validity. however just because the majority of people imprisoned are men does that mean most criminals are men?
statistics could be explained could be explained by biology ?
it can be argued that the differences between the rates of crime between men and women is nothing to do with socialisation but biology. an example would be the male hormone testosterone, linked to aggressive behaviour, leading to violent crime. dabbs et al found 9/11 inmates with the lowest testosterone has committed non violent crime, opposed to 10/11 inmates with the highest testosterone committing violent crimes.
chivalry hypothesis ?
one criticism is that women commit more crime than is suggested by the prison population statistic. as male professionals tent to be more common in the CJS. they have been socialised to act in a protected manner towards females. meaning less women would be arrested leading to lower number in women in crime statistics.
theory out of date ?
Sutherland proposed this theory in 1949 when the male and female role was clearly defined. however as many of these stereotypes still exist the rise of feminism and a focus on equal rights. more women are in the workplace and raise in stay at home fathers. so if gender socialisation is the cause of crime we would expect the gender pay gap to shrink but it hasn’t
differential association theory suggest?
suggests criminal behaviour is learned from our social groups proposed by Sutherland. they argued criminals aren’t born but made through socialisation from family and mainly peer groups.
example of differential association theory ?
if you mix with people who are pro crime you’re more likely to develop pro crime views and learn to think that crimes are acceptable.
Sutherland key principles ?
he proposed that there are 9 key principles that make you more likely to commit crime
3 key principles ?
- criminal behaviour is learned
- criminal behaviour is learned through association
- criminal behaviour is learned the same as any other behaviour
evaluation for differential association?
supporting evidence family studies - Osborn and west found that 13% of sons with non criminal fathers had criminal records, while 20% of sons of criminal fathers has records
farrington looked into the concentration of criminal behaviour in families by looking at three generations of relatives. it was found that if one relative has been arrested there was a high probability that another relative has also been arrested. with the most important relative being the father, if the father had been arrested there was a high chance of sons being arrested too.
