FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY: Differential Association

Question 1

What is Differential Association?

Answer 1

Social Learning Theory that suggests that individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for crime through association and interaction with others who have more or less favourable attitudes towards crime. These influence their own criminal attitudes and behaviour.

Question 2

Who theorised Differential Association Theory?

Answer 2

Sutherland (1939)

Question 3

What are the two factors that criminality arises from according to DA Theory?

Answer 3

• Learning attitudes towards crime

- The learning of specific criminal acts

Question 4

Differential Association says the most powerful sources of learning are?

Answer 4

• Personally relevant
• Long-lasting
• Salient/extreme
• During critical period (IWM)

Question 5

What is learned in Differential Association Theory?

Answer 5

Attitudes whether desirable or undesirable. A potenital criminal is someone who has a pro-criminal attitude due to the people around them. They also learn which types are acceptable within their community and specific methods for committing crime.

Question 6

Who do individuals learn pro-criminal attitudes and specific criminal acts from?

Answer 6

Family, peer groups, wider neighbourhood. The degree the local community supports or opposes criminal involvement determines the difference in crime rates from one area to another.

Question 7

When will people go on to offend?

Answer 7

When the number of pro-criminal attitudes outweighs the number of anti-criminal attitudes that the person acquires

Question 8

According to Social Learning Theory, how does the learning of crime occur?

Answer 8

Role models may provide opportunities to model deviant behaviours and if they are successful it provides vicarious reinforcement, making the individual more likely to offend in order to receive the reward