A03

• deterministic

  • many people with criminal experiences do not go on to commit crime themselves.
  • theory does not take into account individual differences and can cause stereotyping of people based on the criminal history of their family
  • theory could also lead to the self fufilling prophecy, increasing liklihood they will commit criminal activities
• strength- good generalisabiltiy

  • theory can be applied to all types of criminals
  • for example working call criminals or more affluent criminals
  • explains some types of crimes are more common amoungst each class eg burglary for working class communities as they share common values
  • thus theory has good overall explanatory power for a range of people and situations
• limitation

  • Although Sutherland placed a great scientific emphasis upon his theory, the frequency and intensity of exposure to criminal attitudes is very difficult to objectively and reliably measure.
  •  This means that any conclusions or predictions drawn about the likelihood that an individual will become criminal is likely to be lacking in validity.studying it would likely be a self-report measure which does not avoid the problems of memory issues(retrospective)- risk of SDB with self report