a) Upbringing refers to the way a child is raised in terms of religion and moral values, which is effected by factors within their family (primarily their parents), environmental and social factors, and the dominant views in their culture. This will determine your behaviour as an adult. We research upbringing so that if an individual is at high risk of developing criminal behaviour due to his upbringing, the risks can be easily reduced by changing the way an individual is brought up. Upbringing suggests that criminal behaviour can be learnt from others, i.e. if a child observes criminal behaviour he is at high risk of committing a crime. There are three ways through which an individual learns from others: classical conditioning, operant conditioning and the social learning theory. Social learning theory is the idea that we learn indirectly, through others – normally role models (such as criminal family members, criminal peers etc.).
In Akers et al study on social learning and deviant behaviour, data on adolescent drinking and drug-taking behaviour was collected by a survey. A large sample of teenagers was surveyed, with a small sub-group interviewed to check the validity of the data. Quantitative data was collected by asking about the frequency of their alcohol and drug consumption on a scale of 1 (never) to 6 (nearly everyday) and qualitative data was collected by asking about their alcohol or drug related experience, why they were involved in alcohol and drug consumption, are they following a role model, what reward or punishment they get by this behaviour and if others (parents etc.) object to their behaviour.
Statistical analysis showed that social learning theory can be used to predicted alcohol use with 55% accuracy and drug use with 68% accuracy. The most effective predictive variable was differential association, specifically the number of peers that use