differential association theory

• DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY

  Edwin Sutherland - suggested, we learn pro-crime attitudes and criminal behaviour from associating with others with pro-crime norms and values and observing them engage
• DIFFERENTIAL ADDOCIATION THEORY

  we associate with lots of different groups of people, the amount of influence they have on our attitudes depends on:

  • how much meaning the group has to us
  • frequency of our interactions with them
  • length of our interactions with them

  therefore, we are more influenced by people close to us, Sutherland referred to these as = intimate personal groups
• DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY

  Sutherland suggested we learn our attitudes towards crime, favourable/unfavourable

  we learn some crimes that are favourable and others that aren't

  we also learn the motivation, techniques and justification for committing a crime
• DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY

  we learn the behaviour by observing others carry it out

  seeing them gain rewards leads to vicarious reinforcement

  when we commit the crime ourselves, operant conditioning dictates how likely we are to repeat the criminal behaviour again