Differential Association Evaluation

Question 1

What is the mnemonic to remember this evaluation?

Answer 1

S - upporting evidence
M - ethodological issues
I - nfluence (good and bad)
G - eneralisability to types of crime

Question 2

What is the supporting evidence for differential association?

Answer 2

. Farrington et al (2006)
- Cambridge study
- followed 411 males from working-class deprived inner-city London areas (lacks population validity)
- longitudinal study (good)

Findings:
. 41% had at least one conviction
. Risk factors for conviction identified as families with offenders in history and poor parenting

Question 3

How was differential association theory influential in a good way?

Answer 3

. Changed people’s views about the origins of criminal behaviour
- sociological shift from ‘blaming’ individuals to pointing to social factors, crime could be explained in terms of social experiences rather than deterministic genetic factors
- Sutherland introduced idea of ‘white collar crime’ (non-violent crimes committed by those seen socially as respectable and high in social status e.g fraud and forgery)
. Can help real-world as learning environments can be changed but genes can’t (allows free will to do its job)

Question 4

How has differential association theory been influential in a bad way?

Answer 4

It has certainly led to social sensitivity as discrimination has occurred for those from a poorer environment due to the stereotype that you can be perceived as a criminal through association e.g your family or environment
- this is very unjust and can have serious implications on an individuals psychological health

Question 5

What are the methodological issues with research into differential association theory?

Answer 5

. Doesn’t account for individual differences such as differing levels of susceptibility to peer pressure
. The data collected is correlational as we cannot establish cause and effect between social learning and offending
. The theory isn’t testable as someone’s ‘influences’ isn’t operationalised as you can’t count influences as there are so many factors that can be deemed as influences
- hard to separate out learned and inherited influences
- this makes the validity of differential association theory unclear