Social Learning Theory Applied To Sexual Abuse And Child Pornography Participation

Introduction

A core criminological paradigm is the theory of social learning, this theory suggests that humans can acquire behavioural characteristics by observing and imitating others. Social learning can increase the probability that an individual will engage in a criminal act or deviant behaviour, if their social groups are favourable towards breaking rules or the law. These unlawful behaviours and acts can take place on the internet, as this offence is not a physical form and has no direct interaction with the victim, offenders may feel they are not in the wrong

The dark web is a network of untraceable online activity that can go undetected on a standard search engine. This allows users to engage in illegal activity and stay hidden. Cyberspace can give individuals the opportunity to commit sexual abuse in order to satisfy their sexual fantasies and desires. Child pornography is visual material that illustrates nudity, sexual characteristics of a child or a child in a sexual act. These is no explicit definition, the definition can change depending on what the law regards child pornography to be (Ly, Dwyer, Fedoroff, 2018). Each jurisdiction has different interpretations, or it may not be a crime in some countries, some offenders may seek these places in particular as there is less monitoring and less cause for concern.

Although this offence is largely offender focused, we must not fail the recognise the victim of these crimes. A picture will generally include at least two children whether it is the same sex or different sexes, often the offender is a male along with an adult to direct the photography, these photos are the set or a crime scene (Taylor & Quayle, 1953). The content is not only viewed, but can be traded, downloaded, categorised and indexed. Due to the lack of life experience, awareness, comprehension and realisation, children have large drawback and are less likely able to stick up for themselves (Finkelhor, 2008), therefore making them an easy target for an individual looking to offend. This essay seeks to discuss the theory that social learning increases the likelihood of committing sexual abuse, by partaking in online child pornography.

Adult Offender And Child Victim

Many people make the assumption and consider perpetrators crimes to be an unplanned and random act, but most crimes are a carefully planned out and methodical, adult offenders use the advantage of size and power over children to fulfil a desired goal in order to gain pleasure (Sharma & Gilgun, 2008). Sexual abuse on children can happen anywhere by anyone, family, friend, stranger, teacher. Although men are considered to be the more likely gender to commit sexual abuse, women are also among the perpetrators.

Child pornography is a form of sexual abuse and is deemed as one of the most heinous deviant acts one can commit, however as there is little mention through the media and limited knowledge of the problem throughout society, the child pornography problem remains a more unspoken crime (Jenkins, 2003). There are numerous motives why an individual would view child pornography. A person, whether they be male of female with a history of strong sexual stimulation during their childhood may relate both children and sexual activities together, there may be financial gain from distribution of the content, sexual curiosity, seeking for new sexual stimuli, sexually inadequate or difficulties with adult intimacy. Although this is a large social problem, little media attention can result in it being a lesser spoken about criminal act, leading to less behavioural research compared to other sexual offender crimes.

Within the world of online offenders, perpetrators will normalise their actions by building and networking with other offenders in order to justify their actions, this can help them by legitimising their activities and orientation (Quayle, 2002). The internet has allowed perpetrators access to commit these crimes, in a less obvious way and are more likely to stay hidden (Martellozzo, Nehring & Taylor, 2010).

Explanation Of Social Learning Theory

Criminologists search for ways in which we can understand crime, its cause and effect along with a social impact, to then come up with a theory. A theory is a set of ideas to achieve the goal of explanation and prediction. There are two developmental resources held accountable for human behaviour, this include biological factors and social learning. Biological factors include evolutionary influences and family genetics whereas social learning takes into account the physical world and elements from the environment, culture, social interactions and personal situations (Ward & Beech, 2006).

The criminological theory known as social learning theory is described as an explanation for crime and deviant behaviour. It explains the importance that human interaction has on an individual, and their likelihood of offending and the observation of rewards and punishment. The probability of offending and engaging in crime and deviant behaviour increases if the social group surrounding a person is favourable towards violating the law and deviant behaviour. The social network of a person engaging with people likely to commit crime could make the unlawful people consider their behaviour normal.

Not only is the interaction with others a key factor in social learning, but also the observation, witnessing and victimization of these unlawful behaviours (Piquero, 2015, 232). There are four main concepts of social learning that impact the chances of an individual committing violations. Firstly, association with others who commit violations, violative behaviour is reinforced, more exposure to deviant behaviour and learned definition are favourable towards deviant behaviour (Cote, 2002).

Social Learning And Child Pornography Offenders

In a study conducted of one hundred and fourty two incarcerated females, seventy eight percent reported that they had been victim to physical sexual abuse as a child by a parent or caretaker (Levenson, Willis & Prescott, 2014). Many offenders have been victim to sexual, emotional or physical abuse leading to mental health problems and psychological disorders, relating in behavioural misconduct (Turner, 2001). Ryan suggests that individuals committing sexual abuse online such as child pornography, can be related to their past social learning experiences, as their own childhood victimization can lead to an obsession and a tendency to recreate the trauma with their own personal victims (1989).

Paedophiles, hebephiles and ephebophiles are all people who are sexually attracted to children and are among the people who are highly likely to partake in the offending of child pornography. There needs to be considerations to the psychological state of these individuals and the impact that social learning has had on their offending. Sexual behaviour problems generally exhibit a large range of sexually and physically aggressive behaviours and typically have severe sexual victimization histories (Burton, 2000). A consideration is the possibility of a cycle of abuse and whether child victims then go on to become adult offenders. In a study conducted by Denov it is discussed that there are multiple long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse, a yearning for retribution, sexual victimization of others, and sexually abusing children (2004).

Although a large portion of child sexual offenders have been victim to sexual abuse themselves, there are other factors as to why one might commit such on offence. Individual, family and social factors such as social isolation, history of any kind of abuse, parents engaging in coercive sexual behaviour, parents with poor interpersonal skills and lack of empathy, society supporting coercive sexual behaviour, sexualisation of children and peers behaving in antisocial ways (Bentovin & Williams, 1988).

Conclusion

Several conclusions emerge from the analysis of social learning theory on sex offending and child pornography participation. There are multiple research papers that support and give credit to sexual offenders developing their deviant nature and tendency to commit crime, by examining the origins of the offender’s behaviour and characteristics. The upbringing, social networking all contribute to the likelihood of a person committing sexual abuse online and the viewing of child pornography. In some cases, an offender will commit an online crime as they have a desire to retaliate but do not wish to impose physical harm on a victim. This is where viewing and sharing of pornographic content comes into it and can include children. The viewing of the pornography can provide sexual release for the individual with a non-hands on approach. Multiple factors can trigger the deviant behaviour, many of which have come from personal victimisation where the abused then becomes the abuser. A very large portion of offenders have been a victim themselves, suggesting that the behaviour they observe through time spent in socialising in various environments can encourage and set an example of bad behaviour.

Further research considerations could be to look into the child victims of child pornography. There is little research on these children and whether these victims are aware of the exploitation against them. There is space to expand on weather offenders who view child pornography were in the photos themselves as a younger age.