Differential Association Explanations Of Offending Behaviour

Question 1

What is the differential association theory

Answer 1

• proposed by Sutherland
• explains offending behaviour in terms of learning theory and how interactions with others lead to formation of attitudes about crime, as well as learning how to commit crimes

Question 2

What is learned in differential association theory

Answer 2

• a child learns attitude towards a crime (desirable or undesirable).
• thus someone who has learned pro-criminal attitudes from ppl around them
• children will learn what type of crime is acceptable, and what isn’t eg: burglary is fine but rape isn’t. May also learn techniques of how to commit certain crimes

Question 3

Who is it learned from according to the differential association theory

Answer 3

• learned from intimate personal groups (family, friends)
• also from wider neighbourhood (environment)
• these groups may not commit crimes themselves but may hold deviant attitudes or an acceptance of such attitudes

Question 4

How is it learned according to the diffferential association theory

Answer 4

• frequency, length, and personal meaning of such social associations will determine the degree of influence
• whilst Sutherland didn’t specify direct mode of learning, its most likely direct and indirect operant conditioning
• Sutherland proposed 9 key principles

Question 5

What ways can children learn to adppopt criminal attitudes, or not

Answer 5

• child may be directly reinforced for deviant behaviours through praise, or punish or punishment
• role models could provide opportunities to model behaviour, if role models are successful in criminal activities, it provides vicarious (indirect) reinforcement

Question 6

How does this theory contribute to society

Answer 6

• changed peoples view about origins of criminal behaviour
• crime doesn’t need to be explained in terms of personalities but rather social experiences
• Sutherland also introduced ‘white collar crime’. Non violent crimes done by businesses etc (fraud, bribery)

Question 7

What study supports this theory

Answer 7

Osborn and west found when the dad has a criminal conviction, kid has 40% more of a chance at 18, compared to 13% of kids who don’t have a criminal dad
- family studies and peer group studies therefore provide support for the theory, although effects of genetics cannot be distangled

Question 8

What are the methodological issues of this study

Answer 8

• data collected is correlational
• offenders could seek out other offenders, explains why offenders are more likely to have peers who are also offenders
• cox eat al says theory isn’t testable
• shows we cannot conclude cause and effect and cannot test the theory experimentally so validity is unclear

Question 9

Why May this theory not be a valid explanation for all crime

Answer 9

• social learning influences are more likely confined to less serious crimes then major ones such as murder and rape
• theory doesn’t explain why most crime is committed by young people, newborn (2002) found 40% of crime is committed by people under 21

Question 10

Why May the role of biological factors be a drawback for this theory

Answer 10

• distressing-stress model May offer a better account by combining social factors with vulnerability factors. Vulnerability ones may be innate genetic ones, or maltreatment in youth