Differential Reinforcement Essay -- essays research papers

Differential Rein cartment is defined to occur when expression is reinforced by being either rewarded or punished enchantment interacting with others (Siegel, 2003). With this said, the theory was developed as a way of labeling both positive, as well as negative aspects of individual act. This idea of reinforcement is a branch of the infamous Differential Association theory presented by Edwin H. Sutherland in 1939. Another commonly used term for this theory of reinforcement is called differential conditioning (Siegel, 2003). As mentioned, the vitrines of reinforcement are either positive or negative, and operate on the results of specific iniquitys or random acts. Rewarding behaviors evidently urges such action to be repeated, while punishment often deters those offenders from iterate their same mistakes. Parenting practices, social groups, schools, television, and the community are just a a couple of(prenominal) of the examples that are linked to this theory. According to Ronald Akers (1966), each behavior a person commits is a learned behavior, meaning some type of outside force paved the way to this various knowledge. This theory goes chip in in hand with the ideology that he argued in his studies, but focuses on the after do (or results), rather than prevention or control. This theory does not help stay the effectiveness of deterrence, but it does give us a little perceptiveness on why people decide to engage in flagitious activity. Perhaps the most influential group in shaping mortals behavior is their peer group. Take for example, gang activity. Street gangs, though usually found in highly urbanized areas, still follow and even thrive throughout most of the United States. It is the safe and soundty, security, and power that effects these members with faulty, risky and distant thinking, which usually ends up in some type of negative reinforcement. Guilt is often by association, as well as socialization. Purely, this relationship dominate s the theory of crime as a learned behavior. No one is born with the general knowledge of how to break the law or to simply be criminal by nature, but through brio experiences and perceptions of the events that surround them, the criminal activity is learned. Use the professional art of safe (or vault) cracking, for example. To perform such a trick, one must be taught how to do it. Such information is never provided at birth, or thr... ... strategies to govern the influences these gangs brace on crime and society. Between gangs, youth and WWC/CV (white collar crime/corporate violence), criminologists have their hands full with analyzing the behavior of individuals. When punishments outweigh the pull ahead of criminal activity, most crimes are never actually committed. But if the holy terror of punishment is too weak, or ineffective then proper action is usually avoided and a crime gets committed. Criminologists search for a way to put to work connections by associating these t heories with new cases reported each year. One problem is the taste of police and the lack of crimes actually reported to police. Regardless, it is very easy to curb the truth behind these concepts. For example, thieves that are safecrackers must have been taught to be able to do that trade. However, with the available data and records criminologists do have, there is tons of skeletal out information supporting this theory of DR. Without doubt, differential reinforcement is a two-way street with human activity. One will always dissemble the other and it is up to the individual to reach for the positive, instead of the negative.