Comparing Akers And Burgess Social Learning Theory

In 1966, Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess, took Edwin Sutherland's differential association theory of crime and reformed it. The reformation of this theory is known as Akers social learning theory in which criminal behavior follows both cognitive psychology and operant conditioning (Akers, Sellers, Jennings, 2004). We learn through operant conditioning with the help of rewards and punishments, while also watching others which incorporates cognitive psychology. Akers believed that criminal behavior can be learned in social and non social settings, learned through social interaction where the behavior is reinforced by others, lastly learned by observing others. Around the same time that Akers and Burgess modified differential association theory, psychologist Albert Bandura took social learning theory and added two important ideas.

Bandura agrees with Akers theory of social learning, however mediating processes occur between stimulus and responses, simultaneously, behavior is learned through observation within an

Learning not only takes place in an intimate personal group, but also as direct interaction with the environment. This direct interaction of learning is done through observing other people's behaviors and actions, just like the children in the Bobo Doll experiment. Bandura's research was a vital starting point for more social learning theorists such as Akers and Athens. People become the kind of person they are based on the social encounters they encounter throughout their life, regardless of their wishes (Curran & Takata, 2001). However, while each theorists theory was different, each theorists agrees that the experiences which make people dangerous violent criminals occurs gradually over time (Beatty, 2013). Criminal behavior does not occur rapidly, rather the criminal goes through many developmental stages before acting out a criminal