Differential association theory

• What is differential association theory? What was Sutherland's mathematical formula?

  • Sutherland (1939): criminals are socialised or conditioned into a life of crime
  • To predict future offending behaviour, we must know how long and how frequently individuals interact with deviant and non-deviant norms and values
  • Pro-criminal attitudes > Anti-criminal attitudes = more likely to commit crime
• How does Sutherland explain offending as a learned behaviour?

  • Learning attitudes towards offending: being socialised into a group means they will be exposed to their attitudes towards the law - if someone is exposed to more pro-criminal attitudes than anti-criminal attitudes then they will be more likely to offend
  • Learning techniques towards offending: learning what is required to commit crimes e.g. how to break into someone's house through a locked window
  • May be learned from families/peers, through operant conditioning, role models, vicarious reinforcement, etc.
• How does the DA theory account for reoffending rates?

  • In the UK 70% of people reoffend within 5 years of release
  • Whilst inside, prison inmates may learn specific techniques of offending from other criminals and put this into practice upon their release
  • Once released they may be exposed to the same community of pro-criminal attitudes that reinforces their will to commit crime again
• What is one strength of the differential association theory?

  • Farrington et al (2006): longitudinal survey on 411 boys from a deprived area in South London starting when they were 8
  • Found 41% were convicted of at least 1 offence between ages 10-50, and their childhood risk factors included family criminality and poor parenting
  • Shows that children exposed to pro-criminal attitudes are likely to offend later in life
• What is another strength of the differential association theory?

  • Explanation changed how psychologists viewed offending - moved emphasis away from biological accounts of offending like Lombroso's atavistic form
  • Drew attention to the contribution of deviant social circumstances to offending behaviour rather than faulting the people themselves, offering a more realistic solution instead of eugenics/punishment
• What is a limitation of the differential association theory?

  • Difficulty testing: many concepts are not testable because they cannot be operationalised
  • It is difficult to see how the number of pro-criminal attitudes that someone is or has been exposed to can be measured
  • Without being able to measure these we cannot know at what point the urge to offend is realised, showing the theory has low scientific credibility
• What is another limitation of the differential association theory?

  • Sutherland's explanation is based on nurture, ignoring evidence supporting the biological basis for offending behaviour thus making this explanation limited
  • Idea that offending behaviour often seems to run in families could even be interpreted as supporting biological theories e.g. a particular gene combination or innate neural abnormality could be inherited from family members