Differential Association Theory

• Differential Association Theory is a social learning theory of crime proposed by Edwin Sutherland in 1939.
• Offending is learned through the relationships and associations with the people around us.
• Individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour through association and interaction with different people.
• Sutherland developed a set of scientific principles to help explain all types of offending. The conditions which are said to cause crime should be present when crime is present, and they should be absent when crime is absent.
• Sutherland's theory was designed to discriminate between individuals who become offenders and those who do not, whatever their class or ethnic background.
• Offending behaviour may be aquired in the same way as any other behaviour through the processes of learning.
• Learning occurs most often through interactions with significant others who we value most and spend the most time with. This allows us to mathematically predict the likelihood of offending by looking at exposure.
• Offending arises frm two factors: Learned attitudes towards offending, and the learning of specific acts/techniques.
• Learning Attitudes - Socialisation into a group leads to being exposed to lots of values and attitudes towards the law. If pro-criminal attitudes aquired outweigh anti-criminal attitudeattitudes then offending will occur.
• Learning Techiniques - Would be offenders may also learn particular techniques alongside the attitudes.
• Socialisation is the process of learning norms and values from people around us from the moment we are born, right up to people we associate with.
• Everyone is socialised differently as we're all surrounded by different people and therefore different associations.
• DAT can also explain high reoffending rates as those in prison are mostly pro-criminal and have more experience with different techniques which can be put into practice once released.
• Evaluation DAT - A Shift Of Focus

  • Sutherland was successful in moving the emphasis away from biological accounts of offending such as Atavistic Theory.
  • It also draws attention to the fact that deviant social circumstances and environments may be more to blame for offending than deviant people.

  Explaination offers a realistic solution instead of just biological or punishment.
• Counterpoint DAT

  • Runs a risk of stereotying individuals who come from impoverished crime ridden backgrounds as unavoidable offenders.
  • Sutherland suggested that offending should be considered on an individual case by case basis.

  This ignores people that choose not to offend dispite influences.
• Strength DAT - Wider Reach

  • Sutherland recognised that some types of ofence, such as burglary may be clustered in inner-city working class communities.
  • Sutherland was particularly interested in so-called 'white collar' or corporate offences and how this may be a feature of middle class social groups who share deviant norms and values.

  Shows that it is not just the lower classes and can be applied to everyone.
• Limitation DAT - Difficulty Testing

  • Sutherland aimed to provide scientific research to predict offending however many of the concepts are not testable as they cannot be operationalised.
  • It is hard to see the number of crimes a person has been exposed to, without these we cannot know at what point the urge to offend is.