Learning Theory Implications on Criminal Justice Practices

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Law enforcement practices
Judicial practices
Correctional practices
Strong implications
Weak implications
Works Cited

Introduction

Learning can be defined as a process of acquiring and developing new knowledge and habits from the environment from time to time. People develop new habits as a way of approaching a particular problem by learning new concepts or applying what others use. Learning theories have had a lot of impacts on criminology as people tend to act under stimuli that are often under reinforcement. Bandura argued that a person attends, retains, rehearses, and performs a particular activity that he or she has learned from others (69). This modeling stage has a lot of impacts in shaping the behavior of a person in the long run either positively or negatively. Therefore, it determines the kind of person to be in the future.

Law enforcement practices

It is worth mentioning that learning theories are very useful in contemporary criminal justice practices by trying to explain how human actions are related to the evils done. Law enforcement practices require a lot of concerted efforts by the legal authorities to understand mechanisms to be adopted. This will be helpful to them because the civilians have different styles of learning and implementing the rule of law (Bandura 71). Cases of civilians ignoring the rule of law be directly related to the human learning process. Those individuals who often break the laws have a criminal history and have not yet been exposed to the rule of law practices.

Judicial practices

From the legal perspective, learning theories are also applicable in judicial practices. Judicial practices are concerned with delivering verdicts to those convicted of a crime. Understanding the crime learning theories is very important and their impacts determine the destiny of a case. This is because the legal officers have deep a understanding of the facts surrounding a case which enables them to make a sound judicial ruling (Winfree & Howard 41).

Correctional practices

Learning theories in correctional practices have average implications on contemporary criminal justice when compared with the rest. This is since convicted criminal needs to be rehabilitated to pave way for a new way of life. Rehabilitation personnel needs to understand the reasons behind the emergence of criminal tendencies and practices of the convicts. This will be useful because the convicts can be corrected to adopt new life by following their best way of learning (Bandura 78). On the other hand, poor understanding of their learning habits may not achieve the desired objectives because the convicts are not conversant with them. Therefore, when handling the convicts, it is very important to correct them according to their best understanding.

Strong implications

From the above discussions, it can be seen that law enforcement has the strongest implications on contemporary criminal justice. The main reason behind this is the fact that enforcing laws requires persistent and gradual implementation of laws and sometimes imposing penalties in case of misconduct. This aspect has been very successful in most countries where laws are implemented from the grassroots level in society (Winfree & Howard 98).

Weak implications

Learning theories in judicial practices have very weak implications on criminal justice. This is because judicial practice especially in undertaking criminal investigations and making court rulings does not take much time and is only made in a short period.

Works Cited

Bandura, Albert. Principles of behavior modification. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969.

Winfree, Latham, & Howard Abadinsky. Understanding crime: essentials of criminological theory. 3rd ed. Belmont CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010.

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