Crime and Deviance is a Learned Behavior: Birds of a Feather Do Flock Together

Abstract:

Akers is best known for his Social Learning Theory. Akers developed his ideas from Edwin Sutherland: who developed Differential Association. Akers also developed his ideas from George Herbert Mead: who developed Symbolic Interactionism. Akers also used the basic ideas from B.F Skinner' Behavioral Theory. Akers developed this theory to enable researchers to understand the learning process of deviance. Throughout the paper, aspects of social learning, differential association, and differential reinforcement will be discussed in detail. To conclude, a detailed analysis given by Akers, describing his theory and showing how he met his goal of developing a theory that adequately explains crime and deviance as a whole.

Dr. Ronald L. Akers, began his sociological career as a college student, he became interested in Sutherland's Differential Association at Indiana State College. Akers found differential association to be a theory that explained deviance better than any other theory at the time (Akers 1998). Akers met Robert Burgess, while attending the University of Washington, they became fast friends while discussing sociology and criminology. Akers states in his Social Learning and Social Structure: A General Theory of Crime and Deviance (1998), that "Both Sutherland's view and operant conditioning were self-consciously 'learning' theories, involving behavioral acquisition, maintenance, performance, and change" (10). Akers developed his ideas from Edwin Sutherland: who developed Differential Association. Akers also developed his ideas from George Herbert Mead: who developed Symbolic Interactionism. Akers also used the basic ideas from B.F Skinner' Behavioral Theory.