pscyhological explantions - differntial association theory

Question 1

differential association theory

Answer 1

proposes th indivuals learn the values attitudes techniques and motives for offending behaviour through association and interaction with different people

Question 2

scientific basis

Answer 2

Sutherland

set the task of developing a set of scientific principles that could explain all types of offending

designed to discriminate between individuals who become offenders and those who do not

whatever tier social class or ethnic background

Question 3

offending as a learned behaviour

Answer 3

may be acquired in the same way as any other behaviour through processes of learning

this learning occurs most often through interactions with significant others who the child values most and spends the most time with

differential association suggest tahat it should be possible to mathematically predict how likely it is that an individual will commit offences

need o to know the frequency intensity and duration of exposure to deviant and non-denaomt norms and values

Question 4

learning attitudes

Answer 4

when a person is socialised into a group they will be exposed to values and attitudes towards the law

some will be pro-crime an some will be anti-crime

sutherland argues that if the number of pro-criminal attitudes the outweighs the number of anti-criminal attitudes they will go on otto offend

Question 5

learning techniques

Answer 5

may also learn particular techniques for committing offences

Question 6

socialisation in prison

Answer 6

whilst inside prison inmates will learn specific techniques of offending from other more experienced offender that they may put into practice on their release

this learning may occur through observational learning and imitation or direct tutition from offending peers

Question 7

strength

Answer 7

shift of focus

strength of differential association theory is at the time it was first published it changed the focus of offending explanations

sutherland was successful in moving the emphasis away from early biological accounts of offending

such as lombroses atavistic theory

differential association theory draws attention to the fact tat deviant social circumstances and environment may be more to blame for offending than deviant people

this approach is more desirable because it offers a o more realistic solution to the problem of offending instead of eugenics or punishment

Question 8

strength

Answer 8

wide reach

can account for offending within all sectors of society

recognised that soem types of offences such as burglary may be clustered in working class communities it is also the case that some crimes and clustered in more affluent groups

sutherland was particularly interested in white collar crime or corporate offences

how this may be a feature of middle class social groups who share deviant norms and values

shows that it is not just the lower classes who commit offences and that the principles of differential association can be used to explain all offences

Question 9

limitation

Answer 9

difficulty testing

difficult to test the predictions of differential association

sutherland aimed to provide a scientific mathematical framework within which future offending behaviour could be predicted and this means that the predictions must be testable

the problem is that many of the concepts are not testable because they cannot be operationalised

example - head to see how he number of pro-crime attitudes a person had or has been exposed to

theory is also built on assumptions that offending behaviour

theory does not have scientific credibility