Social Structure, Social Learning, and Gender: Issues and Questions

• In Event: New Directions in Social Learning Theory

Abstract

The main hypothesis of the cross-level Social Structure Social Learning (SSSL) theory of crime and deviance is that the social psychological processes and variables specified in social learning theory “substantially” mediate whatever effects meso and macro-level structural variables have on crime and deviance (Akers, 1998). The SSSL model has received consistent support from research. However, this is least likely to be true for findings on gender effects in crime and deviance. Does gender, as an indicator of “location in the social structure,” (other indicators are socio-demographic variables of age, class, race, and so on) frame behavior in ways that differ from other structural variables so that the gender ratio in crime and deviance is not as readily or substantially captured by the processes specified in social learning theory? Do gender differences in crime and deviance reflect biological or biosocial factors that need to be given more attention which relates to the more general issue of the interaction of social learning and biological variables in fostering criminal and delinquent behavior?

Authors

• Ronald L. Akers, University of Florida

• Christine S. Sellers, Texas State University