differential association

• Differential association- through interactions with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour.
• Sutherland’s 9 principles 

  • Criminal behaviour is learned rather than inherited 
  • Through association with significant others/role models 
  • From personal or intimate groups (friends or family)
  • Learn techniques and attitudes 
  • Learning is directional, either for or against crime 
  • If number of favourable attitudes outweigh unfavourable ones then the person becomes a criminal.
  • Learning experiences vary in frequency and intensity for each individual 
  • Learning processes are the same , operant conditioning vicarious reinforcement 
  • A general need is not a sufficient explanation for crime 
• there is supproting evidence, learning criminal behaviour through family groups

  osborn and west found whne there is a father with a criminal conviction 40% of the sons had committed a crime by age 18 compared to 13%.

  further evidence akers found most important influence of drink and drugs was peers. differential association this shows the close people youa re around friends and family have a key influence supporting theory. however cant determine cause and effect
• issue is it is correlation, you cant seperate learnt and inherited factors argued by cox which means you are almost unable to test for a cause and effect, cause and effect, we cannot test experimentally , so its validity is unclear also there is another issue with cause or effect, do peers cause behaviour or do you seek out similar peers because you have a predisposition
• only a partial explanation for behaviour, ignores biological factors such as genes or neurotransmitters which have been proved to play a role in criminal behaviour ,5-10% of violent crimes finland due to abnormalities in cadherin 13 gene. This undermines differential association theory as it shows biological factors have been proved to cause some offending behaviour, therefore the diathesis stress model may be a better model combining social factors with genetic predispositions, social approach on its on may be insufficient need alternative explanantion