ABSTRACT
The basic assumption in social learning theory is that the learning process, operating in a context of social structure, interaction, and situation, produces both conforming and deviant behavior. The probability of criminal or conforming behavior occurring is a function of the variables operating in the underlying social learning process. Social learning accounts for the individual becoming prone to deviant or criminal behavior and for stability or change in that propensity. Reciprocal effects between the individual's behavior and definitions or differential association are reflected in the social learning process. The theory takes the concepts of differential association and definitions from Edwin H. Sutherland's work but it conceptualizes them in more behavioral terms and combines them with differential reinforcement, imitation, discriminative stimuli, and other concepts from behavioral learning theory.
