Differential association theory Flashcards
Who proposed differential association theory?
Sutherland.
What did Sutherland suggest in terms of differential association theory?
Offending behaviour can be explained entirely in terms of social learning (learning from others through observation, imitation etc).
What is the concept of differential association?
People vary in the frequency with which they associate with others who have more or less favourable attitudes towards these crime.
These attitudes inevitably influence their own attitudes and behaviour.
What happens if you mix with people who have favourable attitudes towards crime?
You will be influenced by them and have a positive attitude about crime.
What did Sutherland believe it might be possible to develop?
A mathematical formula which would predict whether or not someone would turn to crime based on the frequency, duration and intensity of their social contacts.
What could a child learn in terms of criminality?
Whether its desirable or undesirable.
Which particular types of crime are desirable such as learning that burglary desirable but violent crime isn’t.
Specific methods for committing crimes.
Who are attitudes and behaviours learnt from?
Intimate personal groups such as family.
The wider neighbourhood - the degree to which the local community supports or opposes criminal involvement determines the differences in crime rates from one area to another.
The individuals or social groups may not be criminals but they may still hold an acceptance of such attitudes.
How does Sutherland suggest criminality is learnt?
The frequency, length and personal meaning of such associations will determine the degree of influence.
Mode of learning is likely to be both direct and indirect operant conditioning.
How do role models and vicarious reinforcement link to criminality?
Role models would provide opportunities to model behaviours and, if the role models are successful themselves in criminal activities, this would provide indirect (vicarious) reinforcement.
What’s one major strength of differential association theory?
It’s changed people’s views about the origins of criminal behaviour.
The theory marked an important shift from “blaming” individual factors to pointing to social factors.
The theory suggests that crime doesn’t need to be explained in terms of personality but could be explained in terms of social experiences.
What new concept did Sutherland introduce? What does it highlight? What are they?
White collar crime.
Highlights transgressions against the law committed by people otherwise seen as respectable and high in social status.
These are non-violent crims by business and government professionals such as fraud and copyright infringements.
What’s one form of evidence that supports differential association theory?
Criminality appears to run in families.
What did Osborn and West find in terms of criminality running in families?
Where there is a father with a criminal conviction, 40% of the sons had committed a crime by age 18 compare to 13% of sons of non-criminal fathers.
What was Akers et al’s sample? What did they do?
2,500 male and female adolescents in the US.
Surveyed them to investigate drinking and drug behaviour.
What did Akers et al find was the most important influence on drinking and drug behaviour?
Peers.
Differential association, differential reinforcement and imitation combined to account for 68% of the variance in marijuana use and 55% of alcohol use.
The data collected to support differential association theory is correlational. Why is this an issue?
It does not tell us what is cause and what is effect.
In terms of peer influences, it could be that criminals seek out other criminals and this would explain why criminals are likely to have peers who are also criminals.
What does Cox et al argue?
Differential association theory is not testable.
There is an issue about how someone measures the effect of number and strength of associations on subsequent attitudes.
It is also not clear what ratio of favourable to unfavourable influences would tip the balance.
What type of crime are social learning influences confined to? What does this suggest?
“Smaller” crimes instead of violent and impulsive offences.
Suggests that differential association is only a partial account of offending behaviour.
Social learning influences are confined to “smaller” crimes. Why is this not a problem?
“Smaller” crimes account for a bigger percentage of the crimes committed than violent and impulsive offences.
According to ONS (2015) how many homicides were there in England and Wales in 2014?
About 500.
According to ONS (2015) how many burgularies were there in England and Wales in 2014?
More than 400,000.
What can’t differential association explain?
Why most offences are committed by younger people.
What did Newburn find?
40% of offences are committed by people under 21.
