Forensic psychology - Psychological explanations for offending behaviour: Differential association theory

Question 1

What is differential association theory?

Answer 1

-Sutherland suggests that criminality is a learnt response, crime is a “Cultural tradition” and criminals associate with other criminals

Question 2

What is socialisation?

Answer 2

-Socialisation is the process of how we learn our norms and values, we are socialised from the people around us

Question 3

What is differential association?

Answer 3

-The theory that everyone is socialised differently as we all have a unique/different set of people around us

Question 4

What are pro-criminal attitudes?

Answer 4

• A pro-criminal attitude is seeing crime as positive

- Criminals are socialised by people with deviant norms and values (Pro-criminal attitudes)

Question 5

How is criminal behaviour reinforced?

Answer 5

-Criminal behaviour is reinforced by material rewards & expectations/the approval of people that the individual is associated with

Question 6

What are offending techniques?

Answer 6

• Offending techniques are passed to the next generation or in peer groups
• For example: How to pick a lock or commit tax fraud

Question 7

What is a strength of the differential association theory?

Answer 7

• The differential association theory explains why certain crimes are performed by certain social groups of people
• For example: White collar crimes
• Different peer groups would have different opinions on what types of crime are acceptable

Question 8

What is a strength of the differential association theory?

Answer 8

-The differential association theory has practical applications, the theory would state that first time offenders shouldn’t be put in the same prisons as experienced criminals as they might reinforce pro-criminal attitudes and pass on techniques

Question 9

What is a strength of the differential association theory?

Answer 9

• The differential association theory rejected racist views of “Born criminals” which were popular at Sutherland’s time
• People used eugenic genetic arguments of criminality to perform forced sterilization on criminals so they couldn’t pass on criminal genes

Question 10

What is a weakness of the differential association theory?

Answer 10

• The differential association theory cannot explain why younger males are far more likely to commit crime than older males, as older males would have had more exposure to pro-criminal opinions/attitudes
• The differential association theory is also unable to explain why most crime is committed by males

Question 11

What is a weakness of the differential association theory?

Answer 11

-Evidence to support the differential association theory is correlational and it can be explained by genetic inheritance in families