Differential Association Theory AO1

• what does the differential association theory suggest?

  • that we learn through interactions with others involved in crime, learning their values, attitudes, techniques and motives for offending
• who came up with this theory?

  Sutherland (1939)
• what did Sutherland suggest about criminal behaviour?

  • that offenders learn their criminal behaviour through socialisation (learning from others) and being exposed to other people who commit crimes, people who have a pro-crime attitude
• what are pro-crim attitudes?

  • those that view criminal behaviour as favourable and beneficial, despite conflicting with the law
  • an individual who is surrounded by pro-crime attitudes and has an absence of anti-crime attitudes is likely to commit crime themselves
• what did Sutherland explain about families?

  • that crime can run in families because people are repeatedly exposed to pro-crime attitudes and values, these values can be passed from one generation to the next
  • the expectation of family/friends acts to reinforce criminal behaviour through acceptance/approval of these
  • this can extend to small groups/communities
• what does differential association suggest about predicting behaviour?

  • that it should be possible to mathematically predict how likely it is that an individual will commit offences
  • to do this we need to know the frequency, intensity and duration of exposure to deviant and non-deviant norms and values
• what did Sutherland claim offending arises from?

  • Learned attitudes
  • Learned techniques
• what are learned attitudes?

  • modelled behaviour by other people
  • small groups more likely to be more influential than large groups
  • repeated expose of pro-crime attitudes or criminal behaviour increases likelihood that individual will learn criminal behaviour
  • Sutherland argues that if number of pro-criminal attitudes a person comes into contact with outweighs number of anti-criminal attitudes, they will go on to offend
  • anyone can become a criminal, regardless of demography (age, class etc)
• what are learned techniques?

  • learning particular techniques for committing crimes e.g. how to break into a house
  • Sutherland's theory can account for why so many convicts released from prison go on to reoffend, whilst in prison inmates will learn specific techniques of offending from more experienced offenders
• what did Farrington et al (2006) do?

  • conducted a longitudinal study of development of offending and anti-social behaviour in 411 males who were studied from 8-50 years old
  • all living in deprived working-class areas of South London
  • 41% convicted at least one offence between 10 and 50
  • 7% defined as 'chronic' offenders as they committed half recorded offences
  • key risk factors - family criminality, poverty, poor parenting, low school achievement, risk taking
  • supports Sutherlands differential association theory, inappropriate role models lead to criminality