psych exp: Differential associaiton

• What is differential association?

  • SUTHERLAND (1924, 1939) An explanation of offending behaviour in terms of learning theory
  • How interaction with others leads to the formation of favourable attitudes about crime, as well as acquiring knowledge about how to commit crimes
• What kind of behaviour is crime?

  • A learned behaviour
  • Likely acquired through interactions with others that we associate ourselves with
  • E.g. family members, peer groups such as friends
  • Criminality arises from two factors: learned attitudes towards crime and learning of specific criminal acts
• How are criminals socialised?

  • Criminals are socialised to learn deviant norms and values due to the people they associate themselves with
  • Some values will be pro-crime and some will be anti-crime
  • The more pro-crime attitudes exposed to, the more likely they will be to offend (as the pro-crime attitudes will outweigh the anti-crime)
• What does the DA theory suggest?

  • As a result, DA suggests it should be possible to mathematically predict how likely it is that an individual will commit crime if we have the knowledge of the frequency, intensity and duration of which they have been exposed to deviant/non deviant values
• What is socialisation?

  • The process in which we learn our norms and values from
  • We are socialised by the people that surround us
  • Everyone is socialised differently
• Learning criminal acts

  • The offender may be able to learn how to commit crime through socialisation
  • E.g how to pick a lock
  • This may also account for why many convits released reoffend
  • Prison inmates may learn specific techniques from offender from other more experienced criminals
• How are behaviours of offending reinforced?

  • Behaviours are reinforced by the expectations of others (e.g. criminals will approve other criminals)
  • Specific offending techniques are passed down to the next gen/peer group
  • Reinforcement increases likelihood of offending, such as recieving material rewards or high status
• PRACTICAL APP (AO3)

  • Identification of how first time offenders may learn additional criminal acts from others through socialisation processes is a strength as prac app. have been used to reduce recidivism
  • Aims to avoid putting first time offenders in cells with long-term or experienced offenders
  • May help reduce in the spread of criminal attitudes and behaviours
• EXPLANATORY POWER (AO3)

  • Strength as DA can account for crime in a multitude of sectors within society
  • Sutherland recognised how some types of crime may be clustered within certain inner-city working class communities, some crimes are also prevalent in more affluent upper class societies
  • Identification of white collar crime refers to corporate crime in which deviant behaviours may be socialised and normalised (e.g. embezzelment, fraud)
  • As a result can account for crimes outside of a specific class or culture, suggesting DA may be a universal process in some cases of learning criminal attitudes
• DESIRABLE EXPLANATION (AO3)

  • Sutherland's theory may be a strength as it shifted focus from the early biological suggestions of crime such as Lombroso's atavistic theory
  • Draws attention to dysfunctional social circumstances and environments that may account for deviant behaviour instead of dysfunctional people
  • Challenges the notion that criminals are ...and ill-conforming to conventions of society
  • More realistic explanation and solution to crime instead of biological solutions such as eugenics which led to scientifically masked racist practises or moral solutions of punishment
• DIFFICULT TO TEST (AO3)

  • Even with a scientific basis, it is hard to directly identify the number of pro-criminal attitudes an individual has been exposed to
  • Built on the assumption that offending behaviour will occur when pro-criminal values outnumber anti-criminal ones
  • Difficult to know when the urge to offend is realised and criminal career is tiggered
  • therefore fails to provide a satifisfactory soluiton and undermines scientific credibiltiy