Psychological Explanations: Differential Associations
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Sutherland Date
1924
Sutherland attempted to develop a set of scientific principles that
Could explain all types of offending
Sutherland believed there were clear cause and effect links between
The background of people of people who become criminals and those who do not
Social experiences could
Clearly predict criminal behaviour
Sutherland’s theory was designed to
Ignore race, class or ethnic background
Offending behaviour is acquired through the process of
Learning
Learning occurs through
Interactions with significant others that the child associated with - such as family and peer groups
Differential association refers to the degree to which a person
Associates with individuals - they spend time with some people more then others, most especially the ‘significant others’
Criminality arises from two factors
Learning attitudes towards crime Learning of specific criminal acts
When a person is socialised into a group
They will be exposed to certain values and attitudes
This includes values and attitudes towards law
Some of these will go pro-crime and some will be anti-crime
Sutherland argues that if the number of pro-criminal attitudes a person come to acquire outweighs the number of anti-crime attitudes
They will go and offend
Differential association theory proposes that
It should be possible to mathematically predict how likely it is that an individual will commit crime
The prediction is made on our knowledge of the
Frequency, intensity and duration of an individuals exposure to deviant and non deviant norms and values
In addition of being exposed to pro-criminal attitudes
The would-be offender may also learn particular techniques for committing crime
Sutherland’s theory can account for why
So many convicts released from prison go on to reoffend
It is reasonable to assume that whitest inside prison
Inmates will be exposed to pro-criminal attitudes and also learn specific techniques to offending from more experienced criminals
The theory can account for crime in all sectors
Of society
Sutherland recognised some crimes are
Clustered in working class communities while others occur in affluent sections of society
Sutherland was particularly interested in
Corporate crime and how this may be a feature of middle-class social groups who share deviant norms and values
Sutherland moved the emphasis away from
Early biological accounts of crime and from those that pointed to individual weaknesses or immorality
Differential association theory draws attention to the fact that
Dysfunctional social circumstances and environments may be more to blame for criminality than dysfunctional people
Differential association theory is more desirable than others because
It offers a more realistic solution to the problem instead of eugenics
Despite Sutherland promise to provide a scientific and mathematic framework for predicting offending behaviour
Has been proved difficult to test