psychological explanations of offending : differential association theory

Question 1

attempt at scientific basis

Answer 1

Sutherland
-criminal behaviour is learned through association and interaction with others

Question 2

offending as a learned behaviour

Answer 2

mathematically predict someone’s likelihood of criminality by knowing duration of exposure to deviant values

Question 3

criminality arises from…

Answer 3

learning attitudes = socialised into a group where there are more criminal attitudes than non
learning techniques = learning how to carry out criminal acts - could explain high rates of re-offending

Question 4

prisons

Answer 4

offending ‘breeds’ due to socialisation in prisons
-criminal and deviant values
-may explain re-offending

Question 5

strength

Answer 5

moved the emphasis away from biological (Lombroso)
-arises from social circumstances and offers other solutions other than eugenics
HOWEVER
-may lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy in poverty areas
-re-offending may be due to needing to survive in a non-prison setting

Question 6

strength

Answer 6

application to more than just impoverished communities
-explain large-scale corporate crime in affluent
-need to fit in -everyone else is doing it

Question 7

weakness

Answer 7

difficulties testing predictions of the theory
-wanted a scientific framework to predict offending behaviour
-not testable as they cannot be operationalised
-pro-criminal outweighs anti-criminal
-not falsifiable