What is the focus of learning theories? Explain the differential association reinforcement theory.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers may vary.Learning theory focuses on how criminal behavior is learned. Sutherland and Cressey proposed various explanations of criminal behavior, including the following:1. Criminal behavior is learned through interaction with other persons in a process of communication.2. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (1) techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes very complicated but at other times simple and (2) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.3. A person becomes delinquent because there are more examples favorable to violating the law than unfavorable to violating the law.Sutherland's theory has been translated into the language of operant learning theory as developed by B. F. Skinner. According to differential association reinforcement theory, criminal behavior is acquired through operant conditioning and modeling. A person behaves criminally when reinforcement for such behavior is more frequent than punishment. Families, peer groups, and schools control most sources of reinforcement and punishment and expose people to many behavioral models. Such theory attempts to explain crime in places where it would not necessarily be expected (e.g., among lawbreakers who grew up in affluent settings). But it has difficulty explaining impulsive violence, and it does not explain why certain individuals, even in the same family, have the different associations they do. Why are some people more likely than others to form criminal associations?One answer comes from social learning theory (or "social cognitive theory" as it was later known). Social cognitive theory acknowledges the importance of differential reinforcement for developing new behaviors, but it assigns more importance to cognitive factors and to observational or vicarious learning. Its chief proponent, Bandura (1986), observed that "most human behavior is learned by observation through modeling." Learning through modeling is more efficient than learning through differential reinforcement. Complex behaviors such as speech and driving a car require models from which to learn. In all likelihood, so does crime. Observational learning depends on (1) attention to the important features of modeled behavior; (2) retention of these features in memory to guide later performance; (3) reproduction of the observed behaviors; and (4) reinforcement of performed behaviors, which determines whether they will be performed again.