Sutherland’s nine key principles

• 1. Criminal behaviour is learned (not inherited)
• 2. it is learned through association with others
• 3. It occurs in intimate personal groups (e.g. family, friends)
• 4. What is learned includes techniques, motives, attitudes, and rationalisations
• 5. learning is directional - either for or against crime
• 6. A person becomes a criminal if pro-criminal attitudes outweigh anti-criminal attitudes
• 7. Differential associations vary in frequency and intensity
• 8. Criminal behaviour is learned the same way as any other behaviour
• 9. general needs (e.g money) do not explain crime because not everyone with needs commits crime