Sutherland's differential association theory

• Differential association theory


  Theory advanced by Sutherland et al (1992) that people learn values and techniques for criminal behaviour from associations with different people
• Prerequisites for a person to develop into an offender


  1. Learn a set of values and attitudes that support offending

  2. Learn specific behaviours for committing crimes
• Differential associations

  • Learned within the family and peer group
  • The people that surround a developing child will demonstrate a range of attitudes towards the law and crime, some favourable and some unfavourable
  • If the child acquires more attitudes that are favourable to crime than unfavourable ones, the result will be that they regard criminal behaviour as acceptable
  • They may also learn specific methods for committing crimes from those around them
  • The types of crime the person then goes on to commit will depend heavily on the precise nature of the deviant attitudes they have learned
• Sutherland conducted a study on white collar crime and found that group attitudes in the workplace often normalised criminal behaviour (i.e. claiming that everyone is doing it)
• This made it easier for individual members to justify their own criminal behaviour
• Juvenile delinquents are more likely than non-delinquents to report having peers who engage in criminal activity