8a - Social Learning _3-11-2025_

Social Learning Theory

Overview

• Chapter 5 of the Criminal Justice curriculum at Loyola University Chicago.

• An exploration of Social Learning Theory, detailing the contributions of significant criminologists.

Edwin H. Sutherland

• Lifespan: 1883–1950

• Position: Professor of Sociology at Indiana University

• Educational Requirement: Required students to minor in criminal justice

• 1935: Founder of the Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology

• Known as one of the most influential criminologists of the 20th century

• Influenced by the Chicago School tradition

• Key Concept: Area’s social organization (macro-level) impacts individual associations, interactions, and behavior (micro-level).

• Foundational Idea: Delinquent values are learned and passed across generations.

Differential Association Theory

Sutherland’s Principles (1947)

• Principles of Criminology, 4th edition contains 9 principles/statements about criminal behavior:

  1. Criminal behavior is learned.

  2. It is learned through interactions with others via communication.

  3. Most learning occurs within intimate personal groups.

Continued Principles

4. Learning Components:

   • (a) Techniques for committing crimes (ranging from simple to complex)

   • (b) Motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.

5. Motive Learning: Defined as favorable or unfavorable views of legal codes.

6. Delinquency: A person becomes delinquent due to an excess of definitions favorable to law violation.

Further Elaboration of Principles

7. Differential Association Variables:

   • Varies by frequency, duration, priority, and intensity (known as modalities of association).

8. Learning Mechanism: Criminal behavior involves the same learning mechanisms as all behavior, affirming that "all behavior is learned."

9. General Needs/Values: While criminal behavior is an expression of needs/values, it is not solely explained by them, as noncriminal behaviors also express the same needs/values.

Ron Akers

• Position: Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida

• Notable Recognition: Sutherland Award (1988) from the American Society of Criminology

• Known for revising Differential Association Theory in a more contemporary context.

Revisions by Akers (1973; 1998)

• Consolidated Sutherland’s 9 Principles into 7 propositions.

• Merged criminal behavior learning with the general mechanisms of learning; excluded the notion that criminal behavior is purely an expression of general needs/values.

• Enhanced clarity on the learning process by incorporating social psychology principles (Bandura, Skinner).

• Introduced concepts of reinforcement through conditioning:

  • Operant Conditioning: Instrumental behavior modification via a response-stimulus relationship.

  • Example: B.F. Skinner’s experiment with rats pressing levers for food.

  • Classical Conditioning: Relationship between stimuli, exemplified by Pavlov’s dogs.

Core Concepts of Akers' Theory

• All behaviors, both conventional and deviant, are learned.

• Learning predominantly occurs in intimate settings across different life stages (childhood to young adulthood).

• Four Primary Concepts:

  1. Differential association (building on Sutherland).

  2. Definitions (social perceptions impacting behavior).

  3. Differential reinforcement (conditioning impacting behavior based on consequences).

  4. Imitation (modeling behavior based on observed actions).