Outline

1. Outline • Differential association/social learning theory • Group basis of delinquency: does it matter? • Sutherland’s differential association theory • Origins in Sellin’s 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?Sellin’s 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 (cont’d) • 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 (cont’d) • 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 (Pavlov’s 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. Hirschi’s 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. Hirschi’s Social Control TheoryCriticisms of Differential Association/Cultural Deviance Theory • Assumes that people are incapable of “deviance” • Tends to produce tautological or trivial predictions

20. Hirschi’s 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. Hirschi’s 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. Hirschi’s Social Control TheoryElements of the Bond 2: Commitment • “Stakes in conformity:” how much has been invested in conventional goals (education, occupational goals, etc.).

23. Hirschi’s Social Control TheoryElements of the Bond 3: Involvement • Involvement in conventional activities restricts opportunities for delinquency. “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”

24. Hirschi’s 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 one’s 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 Hirschi:The 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 one’s 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 child’s well-being • Monitor the child’s behavior • Recognize deviant behavior when it occurs • Punish such behavior when it occurs