Social Conflict Theory: Why People Do People Become Criminals

Some people become criminals and whether it is their choice or not is truly unknown. There are many different theories and philosophies on why people do what they do, but the most influential of them are the Social Learning Theory, Biological Factors, and the Social Conflict Theory. Each of these are powerful contributors to human behavior, helping form either positive or negative outcomes. However, many times criminal behavior stems from a combination of these theories, creating a powerful combination that is hard to refute. The Social Learning Theory states that we learn behaviors, which are then maintained or extinguished by the reward or punishment we associate it with. This is basically saying that we learn behaviors from others and chose

It attempts to help us understand that it might not be the wife beaters fault that he likes to beat women, but the fault of him watching his mom get beaten every day. Through repeated exposure, the criminal has learned that this behavior is acceptable to act on. The patterns in someone 's life are likely to repeat itself in the upcoming weeks, months, years and generations. Individuals who choose to hang out with gang members and thugs are likely going to adopt the behaviors and beliefs of those around them. In essence, appropriate behaviors become those of the group one associates with, even if those behaviors are against the law and far removed from the social norm. This is a learned behavior. This theory helps us understand a criminal 's point of view, as well as remind us that people are not born with certain dispositions but must learn them from others. People are not born racist, sexist, law abiding, or compassionate, rather they are taught how to be these things through the experience of their

Large cities across America have larger gang activity, because there are so many different kinds of people. Good people, bad people, and people that just never even had the chance to succeed in life, are all cramped together in a space that is too small. Neighbors do not have the same beliefs as each other, making it difficult to live in peace and work together to make a neighborhood better. Since people tend to associate with people of “their own flavor” (Flynn) neighbors might not associate with someone who lives next door or directly across the street, and those same neighbors have different moral beliefs and behavioral expectations. Many of the different ethnic groups do not mix well with other ethnic groups which increases their desire to fight, proving superiority, occupying more territory and controlling the happenings in the area. They are constantly going to cause conflict for money, drug territory, and just territory rivalries. Moral reasoning is not there with people who fall under the category of the Social learning theory, because the people that they surround themselves with also do not have the politically correct morals that law abiding citizens