Differential Association

• What is differential association according to Sutherland

  Individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for offending behaviour through association and interactions with different people
• What was Sutherland‘s aim in explaining offending behaviour

  Aimed to develop a set of scientific principles

  His theory was designed to discriminate between those who become offenders and those who do not
• How did Sutherland suggest it was mathematically possible to predict who would become an offender

  you needed to find out:

  • the frequency
  • the intensity
  • the duration

  of exposure to deviant norms and values
• Criminal behaviour is learned rather than inherited
• Criminal behaviour is learned in interactions with other people
• When criminal behaviour is learned, what does the learning involve?

  • techniques of committing crimes
  • Direction of motives, drives
  • Rationalisations and attitudes
• A person becomes delinquent because…

  of an excess of legal definitions favourable to violation of law over definitions unfavourable to violation of law
• Who conducted the study on delinquent development?

  Farrington
• How many boys were involved in the Cambridge study?

  411 boys
• At what age did the boys in the study begin?

  8 years old
• Where did the boys in the study live?

  Inner-city area of South London
• What percentage of the boys were convicted of at least one offense?

  41%
• What age range did the convictions occur between?

  Age 10 and age 50
• How many convictions did the average boy have?

  Five convictions
• What were the main risk factors for offending identified at ages 8-10?

  Family criminality, poverty, and poor parenting
• What percentage of participants were defined as 'chronic offenders'?

  7%
• What characterized the 'chronic offenders' in the study?

  They accounted for half of all recorded offenses
• What are the key findings of the Cambridge study on delinquent development?

  • Focused on 411 boys from South London
  • Began at age 8 in 1961
  • 41% convicted of at least one offense
  • Average of five convictions per boy
  • Key risk factors: family criminality, poverty, poor parenting
  • 7% chronic offenders accounted for half of offenses
• Strength of differential association theory - shift of focus

  • At the time it was published, it changed the focus of offending behaviour
  • Moved the emphasis away from early biological explanations such as Lombroso’s atavistic theory
  • Instead draws attention to the fact that deviant social circumstances and environments may be more to blame for offending
• Counterpoint to a shift in focus

  Runs the risk of stereotyping individuals who come from impoverished, crime ridden backgrounds- even tho Sutherland clearly stated that offending should be considered on an individuals case-by-case basis

  + the theory ignores how some people may choose not to offend despite such influences, as not everyone who is exposed to pro-crime attitudes goes on to offend
• Strength of differential association - Wide reach

  theory can account for offending in all sectors of society

  • recognised some types of offending are clustered in inner city, working class communities e.g. white, collar crime
  • Shows its not just the working class who commit offences
• Limitation of differential association- Difficulty testing

  • many of the concepts are not testable because they can’t be operationalised - e.g. hard to see how many pro-crime attitudes a person has or has been exposed to

  = the theory does not have scientific credibility