5 Reasons Females Turn Criminal

5 – Social Learning theory – Female criminals learn their behaviour from others.

Social Learning theory was a theory developed by Bandura to explain all types of human behaviour. This theory suggests behaviour is learnt through imitation and reinforcement. Therefore, they would suggest criminal behaviour is learnt through observing criminal activity, modelling that behaviour (reproducing it) and then either having it reinforced or not. Therefore, according to this theory, the more crime you observe the more likely you are to become a criminal yourself.

Indeed, Akers (1998) did find that criminality could be explained by the amount of criminal behaviour a male observed in their life. However, does this relationship hold true for females to? Alarid et al (2008) found it did indeed, however it was not as strong for females. It is important to remember, those around a person are likely to be from a similar background to them, and so this could be a confounding variable in this relationship.

No one of these theories fully explains female criminality. They do however all add to the picture of why a female may become criminal. So what do you think? Which theory holds the most merit? Do you think women are less criminal than men, or is this an untrue stereotype? Do you think women are committing more crimes, or is this an artificial phenomena caused by changes in policies?

Edited by: Zoe