Crime causation is a complex field which seeks to explain the meaning of the concept of cause of crime as it pertains to human behaviour. The sociological theories of strain and social learning explain crime causation of why someone engaged in particular criminal activity or misconduct. According to Agnew (2016), strain theory argues that people engage in crime to escape strain or stress. Social learning theory asserts that individuals learn criminal behaviours by associating with other people in society. Individuals are reinforced for crime; they learn crime beliefs and get exposed to different models of crime from members of the community (Plan et al., 2016). Strain and social learning theory are similar in that they explain crime based on social environments like household, peer group, schools, and society. The two theories argue that individuals are not born criminals; they learn the behaviour from the environment and society as they grow and socialize.
Strain theory and social learning theory differs on the social environment that causes crime and individual differences. Strain theory asserts that individuals engage in misconduct to lessen or escape the strain been experienced. According to Agnew (2016), young people who face discrimination, bullying and harassments might engage in crime to escape the strain. The three guiding factors for strain theory is individual desire to get money, status and autonomy. Differently, social learning asserts that individuals engage in crime to fulfil social pressures like differential reinforcement, beliefs, and modelling (Plan et al., 2016). The individuals that people interact with broadly impact how they engage in crime, their beliefs about crime and reinforcements and punishments.
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The two theories explaining crime causation have some flaws in their application. One major weakness of strain theory is that it only applies to the lower class population who struggle with limited resources to sustain their goals and needs. Another flaw is that strain theory fails to explain white-collar crime which is believed to be a crime of those in high social-economic status. The major weakness of the social learning theory presented includes the concept that it increases association with deviant peers (Plan et al., 2016). Another flaw is that the theory assumes changes in social environment automatically lead to individual's acts and belief in crime which is not valid in all cases.
References
Agnew, R. (2016). Crime Causation: Sociological Theories. Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice.
Plan, O. Y. A., Plan-main, O. Y. A., & Stones, S. (2016). Review of the Roots of Youth Violence: Literature Reviews.
