Lumping Errors in Differential Association and Social Learning Theories

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

Differential association theory (Sutherland 1947) and social learning theory (Akers 2009) have long contended criminal behavior occurs as a result of a social learning process. Whereas differential association theory is silent on the precise mechanisms involved in learning, social learning theory argues criminal behavior is largely learned through operant conditioning and vicarious reinforcement. Unfortunately, neither theory has been significantly updated to account for contemporary discoveries related to memory and learning that have occurred within cognitive neuroscience. The purpose of this paper is to draw upon mechanistic criminology to demonstrate how both theories commit lumping errors in their explanations of crime, particularly in relation to the concept of definitions and their explanation of how they are learned.

Authors

• K. Ryan Proctor, Avila University

• Richard E. Niemeyer, Solomon Boxer