In the year of 1843

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Apr 3, 2024

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In the year of 1843, a young man by the name of Gabriel Tarde was born in Dordogne, France (Borch, 2014). During his youth, his parents noticed that Tarde showed interest within the field of criminology and understanding human behavior. In his adolescence, he worked as a magistrate and served as a director for the Ministry of Justice in Paris (Borch, 2014). He then became one of the leading professors of modern philosophy at one of the prominent colleges within France. He later spent much of his efforts studying criminology and sociology (Borch, 2014). In fact, he was most known for the creation of the Law of Imitation in 1903. The young criminologist spent his efforts studying criminal behavior; however, he rejected Cesare Lombroso’s research and belief that abnormalities created criminals (Snipes et al., 2019). Instead, he developed a new understanding of criminal behavior, one that focused on more of a cognitive approach. His theory was developed in the appearance of three different laws of imitation. The first law of imitation states that it is normal for individuals to imitate one another due to the level of relationship and time of contact with one another (Snipes et al., 2019). The second law of imitation states that those individuals who feel smaller or inferior will often copy the actions, behaviors, and appearances of those that seem superior to oneself. The third and final law of imitation by Tarde explains that newer fashions, methods, and event values will be adopted over the traditional or original ones by simple human nature (Snipes et al., 2019). A year after Tarde created the three laws of imitation based on decades of research, he sadly passed away. Decades following his death, another psychologist arose to continue his work and place a relation between these laws and the social learning theory (Snipes et al., 2019). An American man by the name of Albert Bandura worked towards placing these laws as a description of social learning. Bandura was able to showcase the accuracy of these laws when defining social learning. Social learning is often defined as one develops and basis their action on what is observed, taught, rewarded, and even

punished. In a 1960s experiment, Bandura utilized a fake scenario where adults constantly physically beat and verbally abused a cloth doll in front of several young viewers (children). Upon doing so, these children displayed the ability to pay attention to the adult’s actions, the children displayed the ability of retention, and the reproduced these adults' prior actions towards the doll and other beings in society (Snipes et al., 2019). In addition to this, these children showed an increase of motivation to complete the exact actions viewed from earlier. Therefore, these laws can be directly related to the social learning theory. The first law related to paying attention to one’s mind by watching or interacting with another person. The second law explains that due to retention and repeatability of the viewed actions, values, and beliefs. The third law relates to the replacement of their beliefs and values with those observed as acceptable by society. Therefore, Tarde’s research created three new laws that explain social learning behavior. References Bernard, T. J., Snipes, J. B., & Gerould, A. L. (2019). Vold's Theoretical Criminology. New York: Oxford University Press. Borch, C. (2014). Gabriel Tarde (1843–1904) . Oxford Academic. https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28359/chapter-abstract/215213035? redirectedFrom=fulltext

Years after the creation of the three laws of imitation, another theory was presented before the world audience. This theory was known as the general theory of crime and was created by two American criminologists. These men were Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson. The theory’s main concept focused on inability or low self-control (Snipes et al., 2019). Self-control is often defined as one’s ability to prevent themselves to indulging in criminal actions by understanding the possible consequences that may follow. It is understood that self-control is an individual quality and is not enforced by society itself (Snipes et al., 2019). However, society’s view of self-control focuses on the beliefs, values, involvements, commitments, and even attachments to another individual or object. Focusing on the theory itself, it was understood that both authors had asserted their opinions on the characteristics of ordinary crimes. The first assertion was focused on the acts of force or fraudulent behavior to achieve simple gratification of their desires in a short-term. While these crimes are exciting, they do involve the least amount of planning necessary to carry out these actions (Snipes et al., 2019). Individuals within the second asserted category can possibly be nonverbal, impulsive, lack compassion, and display physical actions. The third assertion is focused on the possible criminal traits of individuals that existed before the commission of their crime. Therefore,

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some individuals may display criminal-like behaviors or characteristics during childhood (Snipes et al., 2019). The fourth assertion focuses on the ineffectiveness of child-rearing and encourages low self-control as adults. The assertions mentioned within the general theory of crime focus on various crimes like cutting glasses, smoking, drinking, gambling, driving under the influence, and even drug-use (Snipes et al., 2019). When comparing this theory to other viable theories like the strain theory and the learning theory, it is easy to identify the differences between each of them. The learning theory focuses on the development of children and how they can develop negative and positive traits from simply observing those within close relationships. This general crime theory blames traits developed from childhood and parenting methods as the cause for one’s future criminal behavior. The second theory in comparison is the strain theory. The strain theory understands that criminal behavior as the resulting action of an individual who has experienced a variety of negative factors. Therefore, when one is placed under stress, they may choose to commit criminal offenses to obtain momentary relief (Snipes et al., 2019). While all of theories have provided society with variations for why criminal behavior occurs, it is unclear why some individuals with no criminal characteristics, decent childhood development, and a low stress lifestyle commit various, violent criminal offenses against other members of society. References

Bernard, T. J., Snipes, J. B., & Gerould, A. L. (2019). Vold's Theoretical Criminology. New York: Oxford University Press.

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