Читать книгу The Invisible Woman - Joanne Belknap - Страница 37

Social learning theory (SLT) originated in the late 1930s, with renowned psychologist B. F. Skinner positing the stimulus–response determinants of human behavior (i.e., with various stimuli, how do people respond?). Skinner’s explanations of behavior were via operant conditioning, or how behaviors are reinforced or modified via punishment and rewards (Ferster & Skinner, 1957; Skinner, 1938). N. E. Miller and Dollard’s Social Learning and Imitation, published in 1941, also posited the stimulus–response concept whereby behaviors are typically learned habits that are reinforced through social interactions. Albert Bandura furthered this theory, including a study comparing aggressive and nonaggressive boys (e.g., Bandura, 1973; Bandura & Walters, 1959). Akers and Burgess (e.g., Akers, 1985; Burgess & Akers, 1966) then integrated SLT and operant conditioning into Sutherland’s differential association theory (DAT, as a more comprehensive approach to explain criminal behavior, whereby operant conditions can move learners toward or away from crime. One of the encouraging aspects of SLT is that if criminal behavior can be learned, it can also be unlearned. Given that feminist scholars (see Giordano & Copp, 2019) and race scholars (e.g., Du Bois, 1899; Muhammad, 2010) have long held that environment/culture are the determinants of gender and race inequality, respectively, it is not surprising that they tend to support the posited parts of SLT.

M. B. Harris’s (1996) extensive overview of research on physically (not sexually) aggressive behavior found it more consistent with SLT than BSET, stating that “cultural norms and gender role stereotypes, previous experiences with aggression, attitudes toward the aggression of others, and judgments of the justifiability of retaliation are even more important influences on aggression” than are biological factors (p. 141). Rader and Haynes (2011) make a compelling argument for using SLT to study gendered fear of crime socialization: Women’s fear of crime is higher than men’s not because they are more likely to be victims, but because they are more likely to be victimized by rape and they are socialized by society to be afraid of rape. Notably, a study of women’s gun ownership from 1973 to 2010 found that despite gun manufacturers’ increased marketing to women (using women’s fear), there was; a decline in women’s gun ownership; researchers concluded that “hobbies and lifestyle factors may better explain women’s interests in firearms” than their fear of crime (Koeppel & Nobles, 2017, p. 43).