AO3

• What is one major strength of differential association theory in terms of focus?

  It shifted the explanation of crime away from biological and moral weakness theories, emphasising social circumstances and environments
• DAT draws attention to the fact that deviant social circumstances and environments may be more to blame for offending than deviant people. This approach is more desirable because it offers a more realistic solution to the problem of offending instead of eugenics (biological solution) or punishment (the morality solution).
• What is a counterpoint to DAT shifting the focus on social circumstances and environment?

  Differential association runs the risk of stereotyping individuals who come form impoverished, crime-ridden backgrounds as ‘unavoidable offenders’.
• Despite being ’mathematical’ and scientific, it is difficult to operationalise various concepts in DAT. For example, it is hard to see how the number of pro-crime attitudes a person has, or has been exposed to, could be measured. Similarly, the theory is built on the assumption that offending behaviour will occur when pro-crime values outnumber anti-crime ones. Without being able to measure these, we cannot know at what point the use to offend is realised and the offending career is triggered
• Osborn and West found that when fathers have a criminal background, 40 % of sons had committed a crime by 18, compared to 13 % of sons with no criminal father. However, it is difficult to separate genetics from environment
• Who conducted a longitudinal study on delinquent development?

  Farrington et al.
• What major childhood factor identified in Farmington et al. supports differential association theory?

  Family criminality, suggesting that children learn criminal behaviour from parents or other family members
• What percentage of participants in Farrington et al.’s study were classified as chronic offenders, responsible for half of all recorded offences?


  7 % indicating that a small group exposed to high-risk environments disproportionately contributed to crime
• What social factors at ages 8-10 were linked to later offending in Farrington et al.’s study?

  Family criminality, poor parenting, low school attainment, poverty and risk-taking behaviours
• How does the idea of ‘chronic offenders’ in Farrington et al.’s study relate to DAT?

  Chronic offenders were often raised in environments where criminal behaviour was normalised, supporting the theory that repeated exposure to pro-criminal attitudes increases the likelihood of offending