Social Learning Theory: What May Cause Juvenile Delinquency

as a general concept, social learning theory has been applied to the many different fields of social science to explain why certain individuals develop motivation to commit (or abstain from) crime and develop the skills to commit crime through the people they associate with. Social Learning Theory (SLT) is one of the most frequently looked at theories in the criminology field. This theory was introduced by Ronald L. Akers as a reformulation of Edwin H. Sutherland 's (1947) differential association theory of crime meld with principles of behavior psychology (Bradshaw, 2011). Akers retained the concepts of differential association and definitions from Sutherland 's theory, but conceptualized them in more behavioral terms and

Bang, Bang, Bang. The gun fires shot. Unfortunately, Mrs. Wehling didn't hear the sound of the gunshots because of the pain of having triplets. Her screams could be heard throughout the hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Mrs. Wehling finally had her three babies. She was unaware that her husband sacrificed himself to save the life of their triplets. She was sitting down on the bed, holding one of her babies, when a nurse came rushing into her bedroom. The nurse informed Mrs. Wehling that her husband shot himself and two other doctors not hours ago. Mrs. Wehling was at first in denial but once the nurse suggested she put down her baby in the crib and come to the horrifying crime scene, she dropped down to the floor weeping at the sight of her husband's

Outside their apartment, Stephen and Stanley resumed their altercation, at which point, Mark said, the younger brother pulled out a gun and fired a shot, fatally striking his older sibling. "I ran outside, I got to the point of where [my brothers were fighting]," said Mark. "Right before my eyes, my brother shot my other brother."

Social learning theory focuses on criminal acts, but does not have a way for predicting or measuring thoughts and feelings which may drive the criminal behavior. A great example of this would be crimes of passion, while

“Call the cops, I'm betting that he went to hide in the woods.” He announces as he makes his way to the back door gripping the gun tightly. When he reaches the door he looks back to see the woman nervously biting her nails and watching him intently. The man nods and slowly opens the door and begins to look around grasping the gun with both hands at his waist. He continues outside not seeing any sign of him. He arrives at the pitch black back alley and slowly walks into it. He pauses again trying to make out the outlines of everything around him. Just then a cardboard box drops. He turns quick and aims down

213). Thornberry tried to combine social control and social learning models into one theory (Tibbetts, 2012, p. 213). He believed that these theories played off each other like a feedback loop. He proposed five primary theoretical constructs that are, commitment to school, attachment to parents, belief in conventional values, adoption of delinquency values and association with delinquent peers (Tibbetts, 2012, p. 213). Thornberry’s theory is similar to the chicken or the egg question. He believes that you could start to hang out with delinquents start doing criminal behavior (Tibbetts, 2012, p. 214). Or you could start hanging out with delinquents and then get wrapped into criminal behavior (Tibbetts, 2012, p.

Furthermore, social learning theory indicates that individuals learn to partake in crime fundamentally because of their relationship with other individuals in society. Because of the exposure to crime, people wind up considering crime to be alluring or legitimate in most occurrences. Researchers claim, juveniles discover how to participate in criminal behavior similarly as they do the enviable behavior. This implies that for criminal behavior to be stopped, juveniles must be instructed on the best way to abstain from individuals with criminal

Theories are possible explanations for an event taking place or actions that are committed by an individual. In regards to juvenile delinquency there are many theories based on possible causes from biological, social, and economical. Understanding that children learn from their elders and peers from the time they are small children until they have reached adulthood, is the basis for the most compelling theory, the social learning theory (Prather & Golden, 2009). The impact that individuals have on each other and response that is returned based on what is known as acceptable, helps to identify some aspects to why the juvenile finds the delinquent behavior standard. It is believed that we imitate the behavior and habits of those in our regular

Throughout the course of understanding juvenile delinquency, a topic that I found to be interesting was social learning theory. “Social learning theory says that juveniles learn to engage in delinquency from others who reinforce them for delinquency, teach them beliefs that are favorable to delinquency, and expose them to delinquent models” (Agnew & Brezina). This theory helps explain how juveniles can be influenced into delinquent activity based on their social surroundings. Juveniles are exposed to behaviors through a variety of social groups and institutions such as friends, family, peers, teachers, coaches, schools, religious groups, communities, and more. What encourages delinquent behavior is when these social groups or institutions engage in delinquent/criminal activity, have values or amoral beliefs about delinquency, or they serve as a source for learning about delinquent behaviors.

Does the violence occurring in media exhibit aggressive and violent behaviors in older children and adolescents? This is a big controversial issue that everyone debates on. However, many researchers have found that violence in television, video games, and media reveals that media violence increases likelihood of aggression and violent behaviors in adolescents. Although, negative experiences in families and peer groups have an important role in the development of violent behavior, children may develop that mentality to view the world full of conflicts and violence. I will be arguing how media violence does exhibit aggressive behavior a adolescents’ life. Therefore, many researchers believe that a violent behavior in adolescents is a learned behavior rather than an innate behavior.

Two shots are fired, and Fred comes back into the apartment. Lizzie gets the pistol from the table, and points it at him. Fred tries to get her to calm down by saying that he has a mother. She already was fooled by that trick once and doesn’t fool for it again. He then tells her his family history, and that he’s the last one to carry his family name.

There has been a lot of research done to determine whether the violence in the media relates to children becoming aggressive. There is research that has been done that has shown that children who watch a lot of violence on television, listen to music of a sexual nature and who play violent video games may be more aggressive as they grow older.

Learning theorists may want celebrities to play a good role model, may oppose violence in video games or television, or may want to focus on the role of families and parenthood is providing an environment that is conducive to good behavior. Policymakers that believe in the strength of the learning theories may still find the need to impose punishment (punishers) however, they may also aspire to rehabilitate the juvenile and administer treatments and programs that will help the juvenile in learning good behavior.

It is nearly impossible to imply that violence in the media does not have an affect on an individuals perception of the world, however, to what degree it can actually influence an individuals behavior is the real question needed to be answered. According to Douglas Gentile his research demonstrates that there are six risk factors that can be used to help determine the possibility of predicting if an individual will demonstrate violent behavior later in life. According to Gentile, in a study he recently published he stated, “…Media exposure as 1 of the 6 risk factors for predicting later aggression in 430 children (aged 7 to 11, grades 3 to 5) from Minnesota schools. Besides media violence, the remaining risk factors are bias toward hostility, low parental involvement, participant sex, physical victimization, and prior physical fights” (As cited in Kaplan, Para. 26).

knew that should the officer come into the house he would arrest her for her father’s name was on everything around the house. From the stolen goods to the stacks of money on the table. Brook never touched the stolen goods because she did not want to have anything to do with her father business. As for the money that was the only money that they had so brook made her own money honestly and used that to buy groceries. But her father did not know that she did it so she had to take a certain amount of money each week and hid it so that her father did not know. She swore that if she ever found that person her father had taken any of the stolen things from she would return them.