‘The tattoo’ is a novel which was written by Chris McKinney about a young adult named Ken ‘Kenji’ Hideyoshi who was sent to the Halawa Correctional Institute. Inside he tells his personal struggle of living life as a Japanese male being brought up in Hawai’i, being exposed to poverty, colonialism, violence, urban gangs, and drugs. In this essay, I will argue that one can learn criminal and violent behaviour by those who they hold close interpersonal relationships with, for example, family and friends. In saying that, I will be using the social learning theory looking in particular at Edwin Sutherland and his notion of differential association and Akers concept of differential reinforcement to explore the relationship between Ken Hideyoshi and Koa Puana.
In The Tattoo, we were introduced to Koa Kauhi Puana who originates from Kahaluu on the Windward side of the island and also a boy who Ken had met in his English class at King Intermediate School. Koa comes from a line of royalty, where his dad was the king of Puana Castles which meant that in the future he had the potential to follow his father’s footsteps, but due to the fact that Koa had fallen in to the trap of all of the societal influences around him, he began to change and lost that opportunity. In saying that, although Ken and Koa did not start off on the best of terms, they began to form a close bond to the point where they considered one another best friends and even brothers. Furthermore, this was just the beginning, adding on to Ken’s exposure of violence, gambling, alcohol and drug dealing.
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When referring to the social learning theory, it is a very broad term in a way that there are many different meanings behind it. Bandura (1977) defined the social learning theory as new behaviours which can be acquired through direct experience or by observing others behaviours whereas in a criminal sense, Bradley & Walters (2011) defined it as being a term where crime is the result of a process of learning criminal values, norms and behaviour. Those who we associate with on a daily basis like the family and peer group create a huge impression in terms of what we learn. However, we must not forget that an individual does not have to be in contact with others to learn from them. An example of this is shown where an individual can learn to participate in violence simply from what they are exposed to in the media. Moreover, when looking at crime, social learning theorists believed that those who engage in criminal activity were due to their association with others who also follow crime. Furthermore, this essay will look deeper in to the social learning theory, breaking it down further by using theorist Edwin Sutherland and his idea of differential association and Akers and his concept of differential reinforcement.
The differential association theory became a huge contribution toward Sociology and Criminology. This concept was coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 where he believed that “crime was not a result of socio-economics nor individual pathologies but it more so a product of learning ( Bradley & Walters, 2011, p. 125).” Additionally, Sutherland argued that “we learn to become a criminal in much the same way as we learn other vocations or professional activities (Sutherland & Cressey, 1974, pp. 75-77).” Growing up, Ken and Koa (after their first introductions in intermediate) did everything together, spent most of their time drinking alcohol, doing drugs and causing havoc all throughout the island. According to ( Bradley & Walters, 2011), Sutherland argued that criminal behaviour is learned within relationships with intimate companions. The interactions that one has with the people whom they feel they are closest with (whether it be family or friends), and how they influence the learning of criminal behaviour and the attitudes that come with it. In The Tattoo, the way that this first principle was being demonstrated would be with Koa and Ken and their friendship. Hanging around each other majority of the time, Ken and Koa would have gathered a number of habits off of one another. An example of this would be seen in a way where Koa played a major part in Kenji’s journey through life. In addition, when Koa introduces Ken to Freddie (who is their main drug supplier), he becomes exposed to drugs like weed and coke which they begun to smoke daily. This illustrates the fact that if you are exposed to things like drugs and alcohol daily through societal influences (that being your peers), you are more likely to be prone to learning these exact same things and as if it is like a daily routine. Another example that was seen in the novel was that not only did Ken’s father encourage Ken to become violent but so did Koa in a way where he used alcohol, his physical strength and drugs as an excuse to beat these two marine men, just because they were Haole’s, they were confronted about drinking and being underage and they wanted something that these marines possessed, which were their dog tags “fuck when we kick dea ass, we go fuckin’ take da dog tags…” (McKinney, 1999, p. 79). This then shows that this relates to differential association in the way that Koa influences Ken by encouraging him that that underage drinking, stealing someone’s property and beating them up is okay. In addition, with Koa being exposed to violence daily and encouraging Ken to engage in violence with people that they do not like, it just goes to show that Koa does not really care and that violence is acceptable in his eyes.
The second social learning theory that will be used to discuss the friendship between Koa and Kenji is that of Burgess and Akers (1966) and their concept of differential reinforcement. This notion was a developed version to Sutherland’s earlier work, differential association and also a combination of the developmental psychology and their reinforcement theory. According to Bradley & Walters (2011), individuals learn social behaviour through operant conditioning. In addition, this then lead to the belief that behaviour is controlled through stimuli that follows the behaviour ( Bradley & Walters, 2011). This is seen where behaviour is repeated when it is followed by a positive reward or positive stimuli, whereas in some instances, behaviour is not as likely to be repeated if there is not a reward or a negative reaction towards that behaviour. Moreover, criminal behaviour may come to an end if the individual or group is punished in any way or it may continue if one is rewarded for their behaviour. It is seen throughout the novel that Koa’s hate for the Haole’s grows stronger and stronger every day where it relates back to history because he was told by his grandpa that Kahaluu was once a beautiful, clean place, full of food until the Haole’s took over “Fuck dat… Hawaiians got mo’ fucked by da haoles”, “Fuckin’ Kahaluu used to be mean. Had pig all ova da place. Had taro. Kaneohe Bay had all kine fish swimming close to shore… But da best is you could drink da wata from da streams coming down from the mountains” (McKinney, 1999, p. 59). An example of differential reinforcement is seen in the tattoo when Ken and Koa were surfing and they saw the Haole’s approaching the beach from their tour bus, so they had decided to steal their shoes. This action and language then encouraged Ken with the ongoing idea that surfing and stealing people’s private property is okay, not only because of the thrill that they get from it but also the fact that it is considered to be something fun and harmless as it is not hurting anyone. Another example where the context of differential reinforcement is present throughout the novel is where Ken and Koa are working together with Freddy to earn some extra cash by selling coke. Although selling coke is illegal, the praise that Ken had received from Freddy and Koa over the thrill and the money that he received from selling would have been a huge influence on Ken because he would have thought that although this is illegal, it is easier than going out and getting a real job and the amount of money that he made would have been considered a reward for him. Furthermore, this just goes to show that differential reinforcement is present in Ken and Koa’s relationship as Ken continued to sell the coke with Koa because of the money that he received so that every time he sold coke or weed, he would receive a massive sum of money that he could get used to doing often.
In conclusion, this essay has explored whether an individual can learn criminal and violent behaviour from those who you hold a personal or intimate relationship with. Drawing from the novel, the tattoo, we have examined the relationship between Kenji Hideyoshi and Koa Puana, looking at impact that Koa has on Ken’s life through the social learning theory looking in particular at Sutherland’s idea of differential association and Burgess and Akers notion of differential reinforcement. The theories that were used in this essay provided us with the understanding that if one is exposed to someone who favours criminal activity and who does it on a daily basis, they will adapt to those criminal ways also. Furthermore, when applying these theories to the tattoo, we found that Koa had a huge influence on Ken in a way that being close to Koa on a daily basis had allowed him to not only learn the deviant and criminal ways that Koa was used to but also to think that it was okay to do it.
Bibliography
Bradley, T., & Walters, R. (2011). Introduction to criminological thought. Auckland: Pearson.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Burgess, R. L., & Akers, R. L. (1966). A differential association-reinforcement theory of criminal behaviour. Social Problems, 14(2), 128-147.
Crossman, A. (n.d.). Social learning theory. Retrieved from About.com: http://sociology.about.com/od/Sociological-Theory/a/Social-Learning-Theory.htm
McKinney, C. (1999). The Tattoo. New York: Soho Press, Inc.
Sutherland, E., & Cressey, D. R. (1974). Criminology. Philadelphia: J.P. Lippincott.
