Sutherlands differential association theory

• Differential Association Theory

  Criminal behaviour can be explained entirely in terms of social learning - people are socialised into a life of crime
• Developing into an offender

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

  2. Learn specific behaviours for committing crimes
• Balance of desirable and undesirable attitudes towards crime


  Can influence behaviour
• Positive presentation of crime

  • Can be passed down to family members or peers
• Where the father had a criminal conviction, 40% of sons also acquired one by 18, However, only 13% of 18 year old boys had a criminal conviction where their father was not criminal
• Research shows criminality is concentrated in a small number of families
• Differential associations


  The alternative positive association with crime that occurs as opposed to the more mainstream negative association
• If more favourable attitudes about crime are learnt (rather than negative), then people see criminal behaviour as acceptable
• People learn methods of how to commit certain types of crimes from those around them e.g. robbery or how to complete a fraudulent tax return
• The learning experiences - differential associations will vary in frequency and importance for each individual
• The process of learning criminal behaviour is no different from the learning of any other behaviour