ABSTRACT
Social learning principles are useful in designing treatment and prevention programs and in setting other policies. This chapter reviews the research on crime and delinquency relevant to one or more of the four principal social learning concepts of differential association, definitions, differential reinforcement, and modelling. Few findings in any of the research contradict or are inconsistent with the theory, and most of the research provides strong to moderate support for social learning hypotheses. The chapter addresses some important methodological, conceptual, and theoretical controversies that have arisen in that research. The emphasis in social learning theory is on differential association and exposure to deviant and conforming models, definitions, and reinforcement as causes of individual conforming or deviant behavior. In differential reinforcement, the behavior is conceptualized as provoking or inducing reinforcing or negative consequences that in turn have a feedback effect on the future repetition of the behavior.
