Outline

1
Outline

• Differential association/social learning theory
• Group basis of delinquency does it matter?
• Sutherlands differential association theory
• Origins in Sellins culture conflict model
• Micro and macro elements of DA theory
• The nine propositions
• Social learning theory
• Origins in behavioral psychology
• The three types of conditioning
• Key concepts from social learning theory

2
Delinquent Peers

• Most delinquency occurs in groups, single most
  powerful predictor (correlate?) of crime is the
  number of delinquent friends.
• Is the group nature of criminal behavior merely
  incidental or does it have causal significance?

3
Defining group delinquency ?

• Multiple actors Two or more individuals engaged
  in an offense (is this enough?)
• Multiple actors and group structure
• Established role structure
• Shared norms
• Shared identity
• Common goals
• Do groups differ in the content of normative
  orientations, identities, and goals with
  consequences for crime? Do some groups support
  subcultural orientations that support or tolerate
  crime?

4
What is the origin of subcultural
differentiation?Sellins Culture Conflict Model

• Law is variable across time and cultures law is
  the imposition by powerful groups of their
  cultural codes upon the powerless
• The cause of crime norm violation occurs when a
  person subjectively experiences no group
  resistance to his conduct

5
Brief Reactive Psychosis

• From DSM-IV Associated features behavior may
  be bizarre and may include peculiar postures and
  outlandish dress, screaming, or muteness.
  Suicidal or aggressive behavior may also be
  present

6
Sellin (contd)

• What are the causes of failure to internalize
  norms
• Incapacity, resulting from mental deficiency or
  disease
• Ignorance, resulting from the absence of a norm
  in the cultural group to which the individual is
  socialized
• Socialization to a different norm, resulting from
  norm conflict between the socializing group and
  the judging group
• NO NORM VIOLATION

7
Sellin (contd)

• The causes of culture conflict
• Growth of civilization social differentiation
  leads to an infinity of social groupings each
  with its own subculture
• Migration of conduct norms rooted in immigration
  to the US
• Conquest

8
Sutherland Macro and Micro Theories of
Differential Association
M A C R O M I C R O
Normative culture conflict
Differential social organization
Crime rates
Differential association
Individual crime
9
Differential Social Organization

• Differential social organization the extent to
  which a group is organized in favor of crime or
  against crime
• Break from social disorganization theory are
  groups always organized?

10
Differential Association

• The nine propositions
• Criminal behavior results when the individual
  learns an excess of definitions favorable to law
  violation over definitions unfavorable to law
  violation

11
Types of Learning

• Classical organism passively responds to
  stimulus (Pavlovs dog) (also respondent
  conditioning)
• Operant organism is active and learns to
  manipulate environment according to rewards and
  punishments (reinforcers)
• Social behavior may be learned by rewards and
  punishments acting on an individual or others
  around him/her (vicarious reinforcement or
  modeling)

12
Operant Learning

• Stimuli following or contingent upon an operant
  determine the probability of its future
  occurrence. The two major parts of this process
  are reinforcement and punishment (Akers p. 99
  packet)

13
Reinforcement

• The outcome of a behavior influences us to engage
  in that behavior again under similar
  circumstances. Behavior is rewarding.
• Focus on social rewards (positive reinforcers)
• social approval or status
• money
• physical
• Also negative reinforcement (the effect of taking
  something away that would otherwise be punishing)

14
Social Rewards are Central

• Most of the learning relevant to deviant
  behavior is the direct or indirect result of
  social interaction or social exchange, in which
  the responses, presence, and behavior of other
  persons make reinforcers available, provide the
  cues and setting for the reinforcement, or
  comprise the reinforcers for behavior (Akers p.
  100, packet)

15
Discriminative Stimuli (Cues)

• Stimuli that become associated with
  reinforcement, e.g., presence of deviant peers
  provides cue that deviant behavior will be
  reinforced
• Discriminative stimuli (cues indicating that
  deviant behavior will be rewarded) replace
  definitions in the revised theory

16
Verbal Discriminative Stimuli Operative in
Deviant Behavior

• Verbal cues defining deviant behavior as
  desirable or permissible
• Verbal cues defining deviant behavior as
  justified, excusable, necessary (techniques of
  neutralization)

17
Outline

• Social control theory
• Hirschi 69
• Self-control theory
• Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990
• Final paper

18
Hirschis Social Control TheoryCriticisms of
Strain Theory

• Why do most delinquents conform most of the time
  (strain is, presumably, ever-present)?
• How does strain theory explain the age-crime
  curve?
• How to explain middle/upper middle class
  delinquency?
• High aspirations are not conducive to
  delinquency.

19
Hirschis Social Control TheoryCriticisms of
Differential Association/Cultural Deviance Theory

• Assumes that people are incapable of deviance
• Tends to produce tautological or trivial
  predictions

20
Hirschis Social Control TheoryAssumptions of
Control Theory

• The key question Why do men obey the rules of
  society? Deviance is taken for granted,
  conformity must be explained.

21
Hirschis Social Control TheoryElements of the
Bond 1 Attachment

• Trait-based component The capacity for
  interpersonal attachment. Sensitivity to the
  opinion of others.
• Relational component The extent of attachment
  to, and affection for, others.

22
Hirschis Social Control TheoryElements of the
Bond 2 Commitment

• Stakes in conformity how much has been
  invested in conventional goals (education,
  occupational goals, etc.).

23
Hirschis Social Control TheoryElements of the
Bond 3 Involvement

• Involvement in conventional activities restricts
  opportunities for delinquency. Idle hands are
  the devils workshop.

24
Hirschis Social Control TheoryElements of the
Bond 4 Belief

• Investment in the common value system or rules
  of society. Hirschi believes there is variation
  in the extent to which people believe they should
  obey these rules.

25
Gottfredson and Hirschi Sanctioning Systems

• Sanctioning systems (Jeremy Bentham 1789)
• Legal (crime)
• Moral/social (deviance)
• Physical (recklessness)
• Religious (sin)

26
Gottfredson and Hirschi Definition of
Self-Control

• Self-control the differential tendency of
  people to avoid criminal acts whatever the
  circumstances in which they find themselves (p.
  331 of GH). the dimensions of self-control are
  factors affecting calculation of the consequences
  of ones acts (p. 339 of GH).

27
Gottfredson and Hirschi The Properties of Crimes

• Criminal acts...
• Provide immediate gratification of desires
• Provide easy or simple gratification of desires
• Are exciting, risky, or thrilling
• Provide few or meager long-term benefits
• Require little skill or planning
• Often result in pain or discomfort for the victim
• Are analogous to noncriminal acts that also
  provide immediate pleasure (smoking, drinking,
  drug use, risky sexual activity, etc)
• Often involve interaction between victim and
  offender
• Often provide relief from momentary irritation
• Involve the risk of violence or physical injury

28
?

• How would Hirschi (1969) explain the relationship
  between age and crime?
• How would Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) explain
  the relationship between age and crime?

29
Gottfredson and HirschiThe Elements of
Self-Control

• People who lack self-control will tend to be
• Impulsive
• Insensitive
• Short-sighted
• Nonverbal
• These traits
• Can be identified prior to the age of
  responsibility for crime
• Tend to cluster together in the same people
• Tend to persist through life
• are factors affecting calculation of the
  consequence of ones acts

30
Gottfredson and Hirschi The Many Manifestations
of Low Self-Control

• VERSATILITY no specific act, type of crime, or
  form of deviance is uniquely required by the
  absence of self-control (p. 128, packet)
• Distinctions between criminal/deviant/reckless
  acts are counterproductive.
• Gough/Robins

31
Gottfredson and Hirschi The Causes of
Self-Control

• Largely due to the absence of nurturance,
  discipline, or training (vs. learning theory)
• Components of effective child-rearing
• Someone interested in the childs well-being
• Monitor the childs behavior
• Recognize deviant behavior when it occurs
• Punish such behavior when it occurs