Differential association theory

• the differential association theory proposes that individuals learn the values and motives for criminal behaviour through association and interaction with different people
• Sutherland developed a set of scientific principles that could explain all types of offending
• offending behaviour is acquired through the process of learning


  most often through interactions with significant others that the child associates with. Family/peer group
• the factors that criminality arises from:

  • learned attitudes towards crime
  • the learning of specific criminal acts
• sutherland argues that the number of pro-criminal attitudes the person comes to acquire outweighs the number of anti-criminal attitudes, they will go on to offend
• Differential association suggests that it should be possible to mathematically predict the likelihood of a person committing a crime, based on the frequency, intensity and duration of which they have been exposed to deviant and non-deviant social norms
• the offender may also learn particular techniques for committing a crime.


  can account for why so many convicts released from prisons go on to re-offend.

  • this may occur through observational learning and imitation or direct tuition from criminal peers
• S: Sutherland was successful in moving the emphasis from early biological accounts of crime (Lombroso's atavistic theory).


  draws attention to the fact that dysfunctional social circumstances and environments may be more to blame for criminality than dysfunctional people

  • making the approach more desirable because it offers a more realistic solution to the problem of crime instead of eugenics
• L: different association theory suffers from being difficult to test 


  Apart from the mathematical framework future offending behaviour can be predicted, its difficult to see the number of pro-criminal attitudes a person has or been exposed to

  • making it difficult to know at what point the urge to offend is realised and the criminal career is triggered
  • lacks falsifiability and therefore scientific credibility
• S: Differential association theory can account for crime within all sectors of society, having good explanatory power.


  Sutherland recognised that some crimes may be clustered within certain inner-city, working-class communities and some crimes are more prevalent amongst more affluent groups in society.

  • particularly interested in 'white-collar' or corporate crimes
  • how this may be a feature of middle-class social groups who share deviant norms and values