1.) Consider the social process and social reaction theories discussed and think about your own conformity and/or deviant behavior.
In my own opinion, I believe that even human on this planet has engaged in criminal or deviant behaviors. Whether this is intentionally or unintentionally. People engage in criminal/deviant behaviors all the time but it depends on the severity of the behavior being shown. I could name so many different criminal/deviant behaviors from underage drinking, speeding, petty theft, all of this is something we can even see in younger teenage years. I will fully admit that Ive engaged in behaviors resulting in underage drinking, and even speeding. These are the things I was talking about in regards to doing them unintentionally. Now, is this learned or is this this something that is just genetic or psychological. I could make and argument that both these are correct, but criminal and deviant behaviors are learned. Criminal behavior is learned with contact and interactions with others. You observe, you watch, and you commit. Now, it’s not that simple and I wouldn’t say that it’s a done deal once observed but other things play a role into that as well things such as peer pressure, obligations, black mail, environmental aspects, and even just for survival. I know this isn’t probably the best example but if you think about it an infant that is just born isn’t born a criminal they observe and learn from the people around them to do things like walk ,talk ,eat, etc. So it’s the same for criminal behavior. Now obviously theres rare exceptions to this with things like the serial killer gene and so on that make certain people more opt to things like this as well as mental illness but that is on rare accation’s.
The cool thing about this topic is that if you ask this question, the limitations to learning criminal behavior, everyone will have a different answer. There is so many theories behind this but one of the biggest ones is the criminal behavior is in fact learned and NOT inherited. A statement that I found super interesting is the idea that people who arnt already trained in crime does not invent criminal behavior. I like this statement because it puts things into more of a clear concept for how criminal behavior is learned not inherited. Something really important that play along into learning criminal behavior is that this behavior is learned socially and specifically through communication.
Overall, I think that I would say that I definitely have engaged in criminal and deviant behaviors. I would also say that a lot of these behaviors have been learned socially. I grew up around cousins underage drinking or growing up sitting in the front seat of my dads truck when he would drive really fast all the time. Now are the behaviors the end of the world no, and is there worse behaviors to be engaging in yes. This just goes back to my point that everyone in my opinion engages in these behaviors at some point in there lives, and a lot of the time they are learned, with limitations of course.
