Essay about Social Learning Theories and Juveniles

Edwin Sutherland’s theory of Differential Association theory is about an individual learning criminal behaviour through interaction with intimate groups. His theory includes four modalities, which are frequency, duration priority and intensity. Sutherland’s theory is seen

In the United States each year, children as young as 13 are sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison without any opportunity for release. It’s been proven that at an early age, it is impossible for children to have the mental ability like that of an adult.

In “Juvenile Delinquency in Search of a Practice Model: Family Health, Differential Association, and Social Control”, Mary Ann Jennings and John Gunther state, “According to the theory of differential association, if one is to become delinquent then deviant values and norms are learned in contact with significant others.” (Jennings & Gunther, 2000). In other words, loved ones are initially the cause of differential association if they themselves are deviant. In “West Side Story”, Riff explains how he and his gang had horrible upbringings, causing their current delinquent behavior. Whether it is a friend or family member, their actions and values affect how the delinquent sees the world as

The Social Learning Theory is a theory created by Bandura that often references children and young adults. Social Learning is observational learning, the basic idea behind it is that we can’t learn all we need to know on our own from experiences and personal observations alone. Some of the we learned is learned from indirect sources, this includes mass media. While mass media isn’t the only source of social learning it is one that has an extremely large effect on us all. According to McQuail (2010) “social learning theory holds that media can have direct effects on people and their influence does not have to be mediated by personal influences or social networks” (492). Social learning mainly happens when the source in which our attention

Based on the social disorganization theory; Shaw and McKay account for high crime begins with poverty, low socioeconomic status and the inability to “control the teenage population,” (Sampson, 2016). Shaw and McKay also knew that within the community, delinquency was a trait that was picked-up by and from other delinquents. Furthermore, if the ability to control young

And on the other hand how “Code of the Streets” shows links to the Differential Association and Social Learning theories of crime. The Differential Association (closely related to Social Disorganization theory), developed by Edwin Sutherland, and Social Learning theory, developed by Ronald Akers, both theories of crime are theories that try to explain, at a micro-level, why individuals rather than groups of individuals commit crime (Feldmeyer, Differential Association and Social Learning, 2015).

Social learning theory argues that crime and the manifestation of deviant behaviors are socially learned behaviors (Schram, & Tibbetts, 2018). The key factor in the

One of the major sociological theories of delinquency is differential association (Doob 169). The idea is that some people have learned their ways from undesirable people who they were forced to associate with and that this association warps their thinking and social attitudes. Differential association theory emphasizes that a person is more likely to become a criminal if the people who have the greatest influence upon them are criminals (Doob 169). In addition, sending a deviant person, who has been associated with criminal influences, to prison would just make the problem worse (Fox 61). "Group counseling, group interaction, and other kinds of group activities can provide a corrective, positive experience that might

Sutherland, both a sociologist and professor, developed Differential Association theory in 1939. Sutherland made a realization that crime happens in all social standings, not just the lower class. According to Sutherland, criminal activity is not inherent but learned. For example, children are not born to be racist but learn racism either through a family member or a close group of friends or acquaintances. Although Differential Association theory is a learned behavior, one needs to mentor someone on how to engage in deviant behavior and also how to have the right motivation and attitude to commit illegal corruption. What is the person undertaking the activity going to get out of the deviant behavior money, approval from friends or a better job? Criminals know that committing a crime is wrong, but they somehow have to rationalize to themselves that its alright because of the guilt they feel. Differential Association theory also states that people committing these crimes are doing it because it's more promising to violate the law than not too. Likewise, just because people commit deviant acts doesn’t mean they will continue to engage in those acts later in life according to

Why do criminals commit crime? How to we learn to commit crime? These questions can be answered using social learning theory. "Social learning approach is the assumption that all human behavior is socially learned" (Thompson, Bynum 2013 115). The theory of differential association was developed by Edwin Sutherland to try and explain the development of criminal behavior. Essentially what this theory says is that deviant group behavior results from normative conflict. Normative conflict arises when multiple probable rules exist, specifying how one ought to behave in a given situation. Conflicts among norms affect deviant people of a variety of social groups. An individual is part of many social groups including friends, family, and school. Every group has its own set of social norms. Sometimes the norms between these groups can conflict with each other resulting in the possibility of deviant behavior

Life Course theory could be the consequence of Differential Association Theory. How someone learns to commit crime from other people can affect later offending. LCT focuses on age-specific developmental stages, life stages, turning points, and transitions. This theory requires a longitudinal study (Belknap 83-84). Women who have been taught by peers to commit crime at an early age could continue to offend until a transition in their lives make them shift away from delinquency. This could be marriage, religion, or children. Researchers need to conduct studies on women and men to compare and contrast the two groups. The data from that study could help lead to policies to decrease female offending. Life Course Theory has two hypotheses. The first looks at childhood antisocial behavior and how it can predict problems in adult development. What happens early on in life is fundamental in development, but there is potential for change. The second considers how social bonds to work and family in adulthood explain changes in offending and other developments over the life span (Belknap 84). It looks at how social bonds might alter people’s lives to shift them away from crime.

People may wonder the reasons as to why so many juveniles are being found committing as many harmful crimes that they are in today’s society. There is a list of reasons that the ACS Distance Education organization has listed to being factors as to why juveniles may be committing crimes or becoming more susceptible for it. In their lists they name peer pressure, peer involvement in problem behavior, lack of supervision, criminal parents, lack of discipline, family income, drug or alcohol abuse, mental illness, family conflict, opportunity for crime, and poor education. There may be several other reasons that juveniles are becoming active in crime but these are the main ones that stick out (ACS, 2014). Teens can often find themselves interacting with the “wrong crowd” and find themselves engaging in acts that may be new to them that are also illegal. If a juvenile allows themselves to interact and engage in those activities then they will begin to duplicate what they see and commit the same criminal acts. Parents and

The limitation of the differential association theory lay in the question: if deviant behaviour is learned and is indeed "contagious", then why do so many in high crime areas, including criminals own siblings not become criminals? . Sociological conceptions, which regard an individual as a hapless victim of pernicious influences, are limited in providing a critical explanation of deviance, as they ignore the role of personal choice .

Social learning Theory, this type of learning is based on a simple response to environmental stimuli. Children are very impressionable, they watch and observe others around them and model the behavior. With it being deviant or criminal behavior that is seen and that would be considered the norm in the juvenile’s world. I feel that a lot of our juveniles today fall under this pattern. Many have been diagnosed with a behavioral or mental illness and/or social problem. Some say this is caused from a broken home, society, etc. This puts a hardship on the juvenile system. 80% of the population of the juveniles that are incarcerated are special needs and they are nonviolent. I think we need a better understanding on how juveniles

The Differential Association Theory, established by Edwin Sutherland in 1947, explicit the deviance of an individual's behavior and how it is learned through interaction with others or associations. There are several components that play a role in this theory that determines the main causes of delinquency. One of the components of this theory is, a person do not inherently become a criminal, it is a learned behavior. A person cannot decide one day he wants to commit a crime if he is not influence or challenge by others. When someone engages in criminal acts, they are most likely influence in some way that motivates them to commit the crime.