Differential Association Theory Flashcards
What is the aim of Sutherlands theory?
To develop scientific principles that could explain all offending behaviour and determine whether someone will become a criminal regardless of race, class or background.
What are the two parts of Sutherlands theory?
- Learnt attitudes towards crime.
- Learnt specific criminal acts.
Which key approach does the differential association theory fit with the most?
The Social Learning Theory - Individuals learn the values, attitudes and techniques for criminal behaviour through association and interaction with others.
Who proposed the differential association theory?
Edwin Sutherland, (1924).
What are learnt attitudes towards crime?
The social transmission of values, motivations and rationalisations for committing crimes.
What are learnt specific criminal acts?
The development of the techniques requires to commit the crimes such as the delicate touch of a pickpocket.
When a person is socialised into a group they will be exposed to attitudes towards the law, what can these attitudes be?
Either pro-crime or anti-crime.
Explain simply, the mathematical sequence that will work out if someone will commit a cirme:
If the number of pro-crime attitudes outweighs the anti-crime attitudes then they will commit crimes, (taking into account the frequency, intensity and duration of exposure).
Describe the study of Farington (2006):
A longitudinal survey of the development of antisocial behaviour in 411 males. 41% were convicted of at least one offence between age 10 and 50. The average conviction lasted age 19-28, the most important ‘risk factors’ were low school attainment, poverty, poor parenting.
AO3 - Focus shift.
Sutherland’s research shifted the focus away from biological explanations of crime and therefore biological solutions like eugenics. This theory offers more realistic solutions to preventing crime. In this way, this theory gave a major contribution to the field of forensics.
AO3 - Difficulty of testing.
Considering this theory is based on producing scientific, mathematical predictions, differential association is actually very hard to test. This undermines the scientific credibility of the theory.
AO3 - Explanatory power.
A huge strength of differential association is that it can account for crime within all sectors of society. Sutherland was very interested in ‘white collar crime’ and how this may be a feature of middle-class social groups who share deviant norms and values.
AO3 - Individual differences.
Not everyone exposed to criminal influences goes on to commit crime. There is a danger with differential association of stereotyping people who come from impoverished, crime-ridden backgrounds. It ignores that many people from these backgrounds choose not to commit crime.
