Module 7: Final Project

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Milestone 2

IS GUN VIOLENCE LEARNED

With the increasing gun violence, I have decided to conduct a study on if gun crime is learned. To understand this, i have decided to carry out a research on the association between childhood exposure to weapons and violence and adult gun crime. The study question is whether exposure to weapons and violence in childhood will lead to adulthood crime, which involves using guns in the conducting crimes.

Understanding how childhood events may influence behavior during adulthood may need a focus on interactionist perspective. Interaction can be termed as the process of learning culture from birth. Individuals interact in schools, family, and religious institutions, even though the family's primary means of interaction. The process by which children learn is known as primary interaction.

Criminal behavior is learned as other behavior, according to social learning theory. It is believed that criminal behavior is not only learned through conversation and direct contact with criminals, as it is stated by Sutherland's landmark theory of differential association, but also through modeling and observation criminal behavior can be learned (Akers, R. L. 2002).

The most important part of Sutherland’s theory is that criminal behavior is acquired through affiliation and conversation with other criminals. A high amount of criminal learning will arise from more frequent and intensive exposure to criminal others. Specific approaches, incentives, and attitudes are all part of this learning. The direction of such attitudes and motives is determined by whether breaking the law is perceived as beneficial or bad. Differential association is founded on the idea that if meanings that support law-breaking behavior exceed those that support law-abiding behavior, a person will learn to be a criminal.

In the instance of Little Albert, human behavior was first applied by Pavlov and his salivating dogs. Albert developed a fear of rats and the startling sound after a white rat was introduced to him alongside a loud sound. Albert Bandura, a psychologist, focused on learning theory on operant conditioning principles, especially the urge for reinforcement (Wamser-Nanney,2019). Imitation or observational often referred to as modeling learning, was focused on him. Imitating others around them, children learn how to clap their hands, play peek-a-boo, and communicate. With the reinforcement of behavior, it is expected to occur more frequently. Albert also emphasized the value of vicarious learning, stating that not all reinforcing must occur in the individual. Witnessing the model receive praise or punishment can have just as much impact on learning as being the recipient.

As per social learning theory, criminal conduct is learned through interaction like any other activity. As a result, criminal action with firearms is also a learned behavior. Where did you pick up this habit? By interacting with people in their environment, children will learn how to behave. While teachers, classmates, and the media affect children, studies suggest that essential groups like family and close friends have the most influence on their education and interaction. Children learn more than simply behaviors and acts from their role models. Beliefs in violence can also be learned.

According to research, violence is linked to dating violence's conduct and acceptability. Violent exposure plays a direct role in perpetuating the violence cycle. By getting involved in a negative and violent interaction, children may get to know interpersonal interaction patterns and aggressive coping mechanisms from the adults. Views on violence alter after maladaptive behaviors are adopted, and violent acts become acceptable.

Criminals frequently specialize in committing crimes similar to those they have witnessed or experienced firsthand. What about gun exposure? What about gun exposure if increased exposure to violence as a child has such far-reaching and detrimental consequences? The impact of young children's exposure to guns and gun violence has been investigated, and it has been discovered that the closer the children are to the violence, the worse the effects will be. These outcomes help to perpetuate the cycle of violence. They discovered that children who were exposed to higher levels of gun violence, such as witnessing or being a victim of it, were more likely to become desensitized to violence and engage in high-risk behavior(Rajan,2019).

The most significant explanation for using weapons in crime may not be the social learning theory. There are many different theories for criminal conduct, i.e., general strain theory, social bond, and social control theories. Future studies should improve our concept of getting to the know-how of social interaction and the impact of the criminal career on negative interaction. As the collected data in the study suggests that early childhood experience influences criminality in adulthood stages, intervention strategies directed at childhood and victims of their adolescence of violence will be required to prevent them from becoming criminals.

Reference

Akers, R. L. (2002). A social learning theory of crime. Criminological theories: Bridging the past to the future, 135-143.

Wamser-Nanney, R., Nanney, J. T., Conrad, E., & Constans, J. I. (2019). Childhood trauma exposure and gun violence risk factors among victims of gun violence. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 11(1), 99.

Rajan, S., Branas, C. C., Myers, D., & Agrawal, N. (2019). Youth exposure to violence involving a gun: evidence for adverse childhood experience classification. Journal of behavioral medicine, 42(4), 646-657.