ABSTRACT
The authors discuss declarative forms of memory and their relation to social learning, social control, and general strain theories, as well as their significance to scientific progress within criminology. Declarative memory and learning is the only form of long-term memory that is consciously accessible, deliberately manipulatable, and capable of being verbally communicated. Quite problematically, this means that the various forms of non-declarative learning present within social learning, social control, and general strain theories cannot produce the symbolic forms of knowledge that each theory claims they can. If criminology is to progress as a science, this lumping of nondeclarative and declarative memory in social learning theory, social control theory, and general strain theory must be addressed. The authors’ goal in this chapter is to use the mechanistic framework to address this problem.
