hello and welcome to theories of crime and Justice I'm Daniel McCartney and today we're looking at Social Learning theories and how social learning theories explain the transmission of criminal behaviors and values and how they can influence criminal justice policies social learning theory draws from sociology and psychology to help us understand how criminal values ideas and techniques are pass from one person to another that is these theories help us understand how someone learns to be criminal we'll start with differential association theory by Edwin Southerland differential association theory says that criminal behavior is learned through interaction with others in particular we learn criminal techniques attitudes and motives through personal groups and personal associations Southerland argued that criminal behavior is more likely to be learned depending on the frequency duration priority and intensity of exposure to criminal techniques attitudes and motives frequency refers to how often someone is exposed to certain behaviors or influences more frequent exposure to criminal Behavior can increase the likelihood of learning and adopting these behaviors duration is the length of time spent in the presence of certain influences longer durations of exposure to criminal behaviors or attitudes can strengthen their influence on someone priority highlights the Precedence or importance of the influential behavior in someone's life behaviors learned from primary groups like family at a young age often have a stronger impact intensity relates to the emotional or psychological impact of the influence intense experiences marked by strong emotional bonds or high stakes situations can have a more profound effect on learning criminal Behavior Ronald L Burgess and Ronald akres expanded differential association theory by introducing the concept of differential reinforcement this concept was inspired by behavioral psychology and behavior modification especially the idea of rewards and punishments if you've taken a psychology class and studied operant conditioning differential reinforcement will sound familiar differential reinforcement is the idea that behaviors are more likely to be repeated if they are followed by favorable outcomes that is positive reinforcement and are less likely to be repeated if the outcomes are unfavorable that is negative reinforcement positive reinforcement involves receiving something of value for a behavior like getting money or approval negative reinforcement involves escaping something painful like punishment so if someone is rewarded Ed for engaging in criminal Behavior they're more likely to continue engaging in that criminal Behavior if they get punished or lose social status for engaging in criminal behaviors then they're less likely to engage in them Acres further built on these ideas to develop social learning theory which incorporates elements such as imitation discriminative stimuli and specific mechanisms of reinforcement imitation is the process of copying behaviors observed in others so a teenager starts shoplifting after observing their older sibling doing it and getting away with it so they learn and adopt the behavior of shoplifting through observation social reinforcement also plays a role in this social reinforcement involves tangible or intangible rewards and punishments from society when people imitate the behaviors of others they often do so because they have observed the behavior being socially reinforced with approval atten ition or rewards from others within the social environment also we learn that rules matter in some contexts and not in others we get signals that a particular context matters for the rules this illustrates the concept of discriminative stimuli discriminative stimuli are environmental cues that indicate the potential consequences for behavior for example most of us drive over the speed limit but seeing a police officer makes many of us slow down Acres highlighted several mechanisms of reinforcement including positive negative direct and vicarious reinforcement positive reinforcement is adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behavior if a juvenile delinquent receives praise and acceptance from peers for vandalizing property they are more likely to keep vandalizing property or on the positive side say a former inmate gets a job after release as part part of a rehabilitation program and earns a steady income that can reinforce the benefit of maintaining lawful behavior for others negative reinforcement is removing an undesirable stimulus to increase a behavior for example a young person learns to use aggression to avoid bullying removing the negative stimulus of being bullied or for a positive outcome say a young offender participates in a juvenile diversion program and complies with its requirements ments they may have their charges dropped or reduced direct reinforcement is learning through the direct consequences of one's own actions so if a burglar successfully breaks into a house and steals valuables they directly gain you know money or goods from the crime a positive example might be an offender attending a drug treatment program instead of serving jail time the direct Improvement in health and well-being re re enforces hopefully the decision to stay drug-free vicarious reinforcement is learning by observing the consequences of others actions a member of a criminal group observes another member being rewarded with money or status for successful illegal activities that could then motivate them to engage in similar Acts or say a delinquent observes peers who have turned away from crime and are now leading successful rewarding lives this could encourage the delinquent to also pursue positive change but what I find most interesting about acr's contributions to social learning theory is the idea of definitions in this context definitions are the personal attitudes or meanings that individuals attached to specific behaviors if those behaviors are good or bad and therefore if we should engage in such behaviors definitions can be general or specific General definitions refer to overall beliefs about about the law and morality specific definitions are justifications for particular behaviors in specific circumstances this means that even though someone might usually follow the law they might find reasons to break it in certain situations if they think there's a good reason for it so imagine someone who generally believes in being environmentally responsible that's a general def definition but decides to litter in a park because they see others doing it and trash cans are overflowing there are specific situations that's a specific definition that might change it they might tell themselves it's not really littering under these specific circumstances even though they generally support keeping the environment clean this personal rule bending allows us to justify our bad behavior littering in this context even though it goes against our usual principles according to acres definitions are the moral and ethical guidelines that people use to justify or condemn actions they serve as a personal compass for Behavior definitions are shaped by a variety of factors including social interactions and experiences after all how we decide to follow or break society's rules really depends on how we Define right and wrong for ourselves in different situations building on these ideas let's discuss the techniques of neutralization remember in acres framework definitions are the attitude udes or rationalizations that influence whether or not we engage in criminal or deviant acts techniques of neutralization are specific rationalizations or justifications that we might use to neutralize the moral bind of the law and Society they allow us to engage in deviant or criminal Behavior without feeling guilt these techniques essentially provide the definitions that make Behavior acceptable in our own mind in the 1950s Gresham Sykes and David matah included five techniques of neutralization as they were trying to explain how delinquents Justified their deviant Behavior but the techniques are applicable in many different contexts the five basic techniques are denial of responsibility the individual believes that they were forced into the behavior by circumstances or were not in control of their actions so an example could be if a hacker claims that they broke into a system not out of malice but because they were compelled by the challenge and they couldn't resist testing their skills against the security measures that is they're not a bad person and they're not really responsible for their wrongdoing denial of injury the person thinks that their actions did not cause any real harm or damage for example some of my students illegally download movies and they say well big film studios make millions anyway so their actions don't cause any real Financial harm denial of the victim the offender argues that the victim deserved whatever action the offender carried out if a pickpocket rationalizes stealing a wallet by claiming that the wealthy victim can easily afford to replace the stolen money in cards they're implying that the victim is not truly harmed and then they're using the denial of the victim condemnation of the condemners the Deviant suggests that those who disapprove of their behavior have no right to do so often because they're seen as Hypocrites or the condemners are engaging in similar behaviors so an employee caught embezzling funds from their company uses condemnation of the condemners if they argue that what they did is minor compared to the greedy and exploitative Executives of the company appeal to higher loyalties the individual justifies their behavior by claiming it was in service to a higher cause like loyalty to a group or to a noble idea for example a gang member participates in illegal activities but justifies it by saying that their act actions support and protect their family of fellow gang members placing loyalty Above the Law these neutralizations show how we can drift into deviant or even criminal Behavior but still maintain a self-image of decency taken together these are some pretty powerful rationals to engage in criminal Behavior I mean think about the last time you did something dodgy did you use any of these techniques overall the biggest strength of social learning theory is that it offers important perspectives on how individuals within groups learn from one another which can explain patterns of behavior such as how gang Dynamics can influence criminal Behavior social learning theory also makes intuitive sense since all of us can think of times we've learned how to do something sketchy from someone we care about or see as an authority but beyond just intuition social learning theory has also been extensively tested usually with positive results results for example a 2010 meta analysis posted in the description of social learning theory found strong support for the measures of differential association and definitions but only modest support for differential reinforcement and modeling or imitation however for all of these strengths social learning theory is not without limitations first it overemphasizes environmental influences social learning theories may not adequately account for individual psychological differences that affect behavior these theories May struggle to explain spontaneous criminal acts that are not learned through social interaction or through observation social learning theories might not fully account for the impact of broader societal and cultural influences on behavior in real world settings it's challenging to isolate and measure the specific effects of observed behaviors reinforcements or associations on individual actions but even with these limitations s social learning theories have important policy implications that could prevent and address criminal behaviors effectively social learning theories suggest that early interventions can prevent the development of criminal Behavior by promoting pro-social behaviors and attitudes Correctional programs can be designed to replace criminal behaviors with socially acceptable ones using positive reinforcements and teaching new skills policies that strengthen Community structures can help reduce crime by creating positive social networks and reinforcing Norms against criminal Behavior implementing educational programs that teach the consequences of crime and the benefits of lawful Behavior aligns with the tenants of social learning theories okay that's it for today thanks for watching and I hope you learned a lot if you want more information please check the additional resources in the description stay curious keep learning and I'll see you next time