attempted to set scientific principals to offending and suggested that individuals learn criminal behaviour through interactions with others
learn values, attitudes, techniques for criminal behaviours through observation and imitation
2 parts to theory
learned attitudes towards crime- if the number of pro-criminal attitudes a person aquires outweighs the number of anti-criminal attitudes then they will go on to offend
learning criminal acts- criminals may also learn how to carry out crimes, this can help explain re-offending when people are released from prison as they learn specific techniques from inmates