Akers Types of Learning

1
AkersTypes of Learning

• Classical organism passively responds to
  stimulus (Pavlovs 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)

2
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

3
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)

4
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

5
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

6
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)

7
Outline

• Social control theory
• Hirschi 69
• Self-control theory
• Gottfredson and Hirschi 90

8
The Age-Crime Curve
9
Hirschis 69 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.

10
Hirschis 69 Social Control Theory Criticisms
of Differential Association theory

• Assumes that people are incapable of deviance
• Tends to produce tautological or trivial
  predictions

11
Hirschis 69 Social Control Theory Assumptions
of control theory

• The key question Why do men obey the rules of
  society? Deviance is taken for granted,
  conformity must be explained.
• Rooted in Durkheim
• Individual level complement to social
  disorganization theory

12
Hirschis 69 Social Control Theory Elements of
the bond 1 Attachment

• The extent of attachment to, and affection for,
  others. Sensitivity to the opinion of others.

13
Hirschis 69 Social Control Theory Elements of
the bond 2 Commitment

• Stakes in conformity how much has been
  invested in conventional goals (education,
  employment, etc.).

14
Hirschis 69 Social Control Theory Elements of
the bond 3 Involvement

• Involvement in conventional activities restricts
  opportunities for delinquency. Idle hands are
  the devils workshop.

15
Hirschis 69 Social Control Theory Elements 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.

16
Hirschi 69 Social Control Theory What type of
control does he emphasize?

• Supervision?

17
Hirschi 69 Social Control Theory What type of
control does he emphasize?

• Supervision?
• Socialization against deviant activity?

18
Hirschi 69 Social Control Theory What type of
control does he emphasize?

• Supervision?
• Socialization against deviant activity?
• Socialization to conventional activity?

19
Gottfredson and Hirschi Sanctioning Systems

• Sanctioning systems (Jeremy Bentham 1789)
• Legal (crime)
• Moral/social (deviance)
• Physical (recklessness)
• Religious (sin)

20
Gottfredson and Hirschi The Elements of
Self-ControlDerived from Properties of Criminal
Acts

• 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

21
Gottfredson and Hirschi The Elements of
Self-ControlVision of the Offender

• People who lack self-control will tend to be
• Impulsive
• Insensitive
• Physical (as opposed to mental)
• Risk-taking
• Short-sighted
• Nonverbal
• And will tend to engage in criminal and analogous
  acts

22
Gottfredson and HirschiThe Elements of
Self-Control

• Elements of self-control
• Can be identified prior to the age of
  responsibility for crime
• Tend to cluster together in the same people
• Tend to persist through life (Stability)

23
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) vulnerability to the temptations of
  the moment (331). the dimensions of
  self-control are factors affecting calculation of
  the consequences of ones acts (p. 339 of GH).

24
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 (versus specialization)
• Distinctions between criminal/deviant/reckless
  acts are counterproductive.
• Robins (1966)

25
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 (the major
  cause of self-control)
• Someone interested in the childs well-being
• Monitor the childs behavior
• Recognize deviant behavior when it occurs
• Punish such behavior when it occurs

26
Outline

• Criminal Careers vs. Criminal Propensity More on
  the age-crime curve
• Developmental models
• Sampson and Laub
• Typological models
• Moffitt

27
Types of Theory

• General a single explanatory model accounts for
  the distribution of crime and delinquency
• Developmental different explanatory models
  account for crime at different phases of the life
  course
• Typological different explanatory models account
  for crime among different groups of individuals

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
Criminal CareersOrigins of the concern with
chronic offenders

• Wolfgang, Figlio, and Sellin (1972) Delinquency
  in a Birth Cohort 6 of juveniles accounted for
  52 of all juvenile contacts with the police and
  70 of all juvenile contacts involving felony
  offenses (p. 284 Vold and Bernard).

30
The Age-Crime Curve
31
Criminal Careers vs. Criminal Propensity

• Criminal careers relationship between age and
  crime a function of changes in participation in
  offending (Blumstein, et al.)
• We should use longitudinal data to examine
  changes in offending over time
• Criminal propensity age-crime curve a function
  of changes in frequency of offending (Gottfredson
  and Hirschi)
• Cross-sectional data are adequate to study
  differences in offending. Longitudinal data are
  unnecessary.

32
Criminal CareersKey concepts

• Career criminal chronic offender who commits
  frequent crimes over a long period of time
• Criminal career descriptiveassumes criminals
  begin, persist, and desist in offending.

33
Criminal CareersKey concepts

• Participation ever committed a crime
• Prevalence the fraction of a group of people
  that has ever participated
• Frequency rate of criminal activity for those
  who engage in crime
• Seriousness severity of offenses
• Onset/desistance beginning/end of a career
• Duration time between onset/desistance

34
Developmental/Typological Models

• Thornberry Interactional Theory (developmental
  model)
• Sampson and Laub Continuity and Change
  (developmental model)
• Moffitt Life-course persistent and
  adolescence-limited offenders
• (typological and developmental model)

35
ThornberryInteractional Theory Critique of
traditional models

• Traditional models
• Rely on unidirectional causal structures
• Ignore developmental progressions
• Fail to link processual concepts to the persons
  position in the social structure

36
Thornberry Interactional Theory Key concepts

• Attachment to parents
• Commitment to school
• Belief in conventional values
• Association with delinquent peers
• Adoption of delinquent values
• Engagement in delinquent behavior

37
Thornberry A Reciprocal Model of Delinquent
Involvement at Early Adolescence (11 to 13)
Belief in conventional values
Association with delinquent peers
Attachment to parents
Delinquent values
Delinquent behavior
Commitment to school
38
Thornberry A Reciprocal Model of Delinquent
Involvement at Middle Adolescence (15 to 16)
Belief in conventional values
Association with delinquent peers
Attachment to parents
Delinquent values
Delinquent behavior
Commitment to school
39
Thornberry A Reciprocal Model of Delinquent
Involvement at Later Adolescence (18 to 20)

• I cant draw any more arrows
• General substantive changes in the model
  (examples)
• Changing role of attachment to parents
• Changing role of delinquent values across
  adolescence
• Relative impact of conventional sources of
  influence in later adolescence

40
Sampson and Laub

• Continuity and change across the life course
• Incorporate insights from developmental
  psychology (continuity) and life course sociology
  and the role of ongoing social processes across
  the life course (change)

41
Sampson and Laub

• How is the model developmental?
• Following Elder (1975, 1985) we differentiate
  the life course of individuals on the basis of
  age and argue that the important institutions of
  informal and formal social control vary across
  the life span (p. 17).

42
?

• Is the capacity for attachment necessary for
  turning points away from criminal careers to
  occur in Sampson and Laubs age-graded theory of
  age-graded informal social control?
• How is change possible for individuals with low
  self-control in Sampson and Laubs theory?

43
Moffitts Typological/ Developmental Theory

• Temporary versus persistent antisocial persons
  constitute two qualitatively distinct types of
  persons.

44
Moffitts Typological TheoryA typology that
addresses the shape of the age-crime curve

• Actual rates of delinquency peak during
  adolescence and can be considered normal
• by early 20s, number of active offenders
  decreases by 50
• by age 28, almost 85 of former delinquents
  desist
• Antisocial or conduct-disordered behavior
  begins long before official data suggest
• M argues that the age-crime curve conceals two
  groups
• Life course persistent offenders
• Adolescence limited offenders

45
MoffittLife course persistent offenders

• A small group of persons engages in antisocial
  behavior at every stage of life
• Prevalence of conduct disorder 4-9
• Rate of conviction for a violent offense in young
  adult males is between 3-6
• Robins (1966, 78) virtually no cases of adult
  antisocial personality disorder that did not also
  have conduct disorder

46
MoffittAdolescence-limited offenders

• The adolescent peak in the age-crime curve
  reflects a temporary increase in the number of
  people involved in antisocial behavior, not a
  temporary acceleration in the offense rates of
  individuals (p. 138, packet)
• Adolescence limited delinquency is ubiquitous
  (offending during adolescence is normal)

47
Moffitt A theory of life-course persistent
offenders

• Neuropsychological deficits Early differences in
  temperament, behavioral development, and
  cognitive abilities
• Children with neuropsychological deficits tend to
  have parents who are less equipped for positive
  parenting and tend to elicit less positive
  parenting behavior
• Forms of continuity
• Contemporary manifestation of NP deficits across
  the life course
• Cumulative the ensnaring consequences of
  criminal behavior across the life course

48
MoffittA theory of adolescence-limited offenders

• Adolescence limited offending is social mimicry
  of the antisocial style of life-course-persistent
  offenders
• Delinquency is a social behavior that allows
  access to a valuable resource mature status
• Adolescents suffer from maturity gap (onset of
  puberty but delayed adult status)
• Maturity gap coincides with salience of a LCP
  youth who have access to adult resources--particul
  arly sex

49
?

• Would adolescence-limited delinquency occur in
  the absence of life-course persistent
  delinquents?
• How do we explain gender differences in
  delinquency? Is delinquency likely to occur,
  e.g., in an all-girls school, according to
  Moffitt?

50
Why Inequality and Crime?

• Two approaches
• Labeling theory inequality in application of
  deviant labels by class
• Power-control theory inequality in the
  application of social control by gender

51
Roots in the German Tradition

• Societies inevitably characterized by conflict
• Sellins theory of low as a tool of the powerful
  informs Lemerts early labeling theory and
  subsequent theoretical development

52
What is Deviance?

• Statistical departure from average experience
  (rare or infrequent phenomena).
• Absolutist violation of previously agreed upon
  standards of behavior.
• Reactivist behavior or conditions labeled as
  deviant by others (deviance requires an
  audience).
• Normative deviance is a violation of a conduct
  norm that tends to elicit if detected, negative
  sanctions.

53
Key Themes of Labeling Theory

• The role of identity/self-concept in deviant
  behavior

54
Key Themes of Labeling Theory

• The role of identity/self-concept in criminal
  behavior
• Distinction between primary and secondary
  deviation

55
Labeling Theory Lemert Social Pathology (1951)

• Primary deviation
• Deviations remain primary or symptomatic and
  situational as long as they are rationalized as
  functions of a socially acceptable role
• Secondary deviation
• If deviant acts are repetitive and have high
  visibility, and if there is a severe societal
  reaction, the probability is increased
  thatreorganization based upon a new role will
  occur

56
Attention Deficit Disorder

• Diagnostic Criteria
• 1. six (or more) of the following symptoms of
  inattention have persisted for at least 6 months
  to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent
  with developmental level
• often fails to give close attention to details or
  makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or
  other activities
• often has difficulty sustaining attention in
  tasks or play activities
• often does not seem to listen when spoken to
  directly
• often does not follow through on instructions and
  fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in
  the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior
  or failure to understand instructions)
• often has difficulty organizing tasks and
  activities
• often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage
  in tasks that require sustained mental effort
  (such as schoolwork or homework)
• often loses things necessary for tasks or
  activities (e.g., toys, school assignments,
  pencils, books, or tools)
• is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli
• is often forgetful in daily activities

57
Key Themes of Labeling Theory

• The role of identity/self-concept in criminal
  behavior
• Distinction between primary and secondary
  deviation
• The role of audiences in the development of
  delinquent trajectories