social learning theory -

Individualistic Theory of Crime

Individualistic theories are psychological theories. They suggest criminality has psychological rather than biological cause. However, there is some overlap with biological and sociological theories.
These involve learning through ,observation and imitation, imbalances in the unconscious mind and development of a 'criminal' personality.

Learning Theories and Crime

Learning theories suggest that we learn behaviour and therefore criminal behaviours in 2 ways: Directly through reward and punishment. Indirectly through observing another person be rewarded and/or punished, and imitating that behaviour

Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory is a theory that attempts to explain socialisation and its effect on the development of the self, Social learning theory looks at the individual learning process, the formation of self, and the influence of society in socialising individuals

Social Learning Theory and Crime

According to social learning theory, people engage in crime because of their association with others who engage in crime.
Their criminal behaviour is reinforced and they learn beliefs that are favourable to crime.
They essentially have criminal models that they associate with. As a consequence, these individuals come to view crime as something that is desirable, or at least justifiable in certain situations

Social Learning Theory:Albert Bandura

Bandura argued that people learn by watching the behaviour of others. If a person watches a person be rewarded for behaviour, they are more likely to copy that behaviour - This is known as vicarious reinforcement. Alternatively we can watch someone be punished for their behaviour, and this will make it less likely the behaviour is repeated.

Social Learning Theory: "Models"

"Models" are the people from whom we learn our behaviour. We imitate the models behvaiours.
However, Bandura outlined we do not copy the behaviour of just any "model" we copy those who are of a higher status than us.

Concequences of models

the learning of the behaviours reflects the consequence of the "models" actions.Positive Consequence = more likely to imitate the "models" behaviour. Negative Consequence = less likely to imitate the "models" behaviour

Bandura bobo doll experiment

Bandura carried out a series of experiments with a Bobo Doll. The experiment involved 3 groups of chilren, 12 boys and 12 girls, where 1 group saw an agreesive model, another group saw a non agreessive model and the other group used as a control group and was exposed to no models. The Children were left in a room to play with toys after thy obersrved the model.

Results from bobo doll experiment

The children who saw the agressive model, behaved more agressively than the other 2 groups. They also imitated the agressive models exact behvaiours. non agressive groups were less agressive than the agressive group and the control group

Social Learning Theory:Strengths

-Bandura takes into account we are social beings -Highlights the fact we learn from each other -Bandura's study shows the importance of role models in learning deviant behaviour - children copies the aggressive behaviour which was rewarded

Social Learning Theory:Weaknesses

-Based on laboratory Studies - artificial setting -Ignores freedom of choice and assumes behaviour is completely based by learning experience -Not all observed behaviour is easily imitated

Social Learning Theory: Case Study

The Case of Jamie Bulger The killers were said to have watched the film Childs Play 3 before the murders. A judge said 'It is not for me to pass judgement on their upbringing, but I suspect exposure to violent video films may in part be an explanation.' (Mr Justice Morland, Trial Judge)