Social Learning Theory Vs. Self-Control Theory

402 Words2 Pages
Over the past years, the self-control theory claims that the sole of crime is self-control and that parenting has big influence on it which is contradicted by some critics. One of the critics against this argument is Ronald Akers, the proponent of social learning theory. Akers claims that persons engage in criminal behavior when their obedience to the norms of the society is decreased and they differently associate with persons who commit deviant acts (Akers & Jennings, 2009). To date, however, there is no common publication about the comparative explanatory power of the two theories. Nevertheless, some researches were conducted in other countries especially western countries to compare said theories. Both theories have explanatory power in