Differential association

• Sutherland proposed the differential association explanation of offendeing stating that it‘s learnt through interaction with people of significance.
• He proposed that pro crime attitudes outweigh any anti crime attitudes and this leads to the committal of crime.

  An individual may learn a criminal act e.g how to pick a lock, or in prison may socialise with experienced offenders and learn how to commit a crime through observation and imitation in a form of direct tuition.
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  Issues with Sutherland research is that it is environmentally deterministic.

  This is because it suggests crime is the result of interactions with too many pro crime attitudes which therefore ignores those exposed to pro crime attitudes that don’t commit crime.

  This also then opposes the Criminal Justice System which enforces the idea of responsibility as individuals have power to choose and the theory doesn’t account for this.
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  Sutherlands research can explain crimes committed in urban and working class areas specifically crimes like burglary, white collar and corporate crime.

  It can explain why crime is prolific in certain social groups and communities due to increased pro crime attitudes and this can therefore explain why convicts may reoffend if pro crime attitudes are prolific in their areas.
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  However, there are negative implications as it may lead to negative stereotypes of those from ’crime ridden’ backgrounds stating that they are destined to become criminals because of the areas they come from.

  Therefore the theory can become socially sensitive and lead to negative consequences of people avoiding certain areas due to the stigmas attached to them.
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  The biggest issue with Sutherland research is that it’s unfalsifiable as you can’t test and measure how many pro crime attitudes a person has been exposed to.

  This is problematic because you can’t quantify the extent at which Sutherland theory is correct and therefore you can’t make firm conclusions and this decreases its scientific credibility.