Psychological explinations of offending behaviour: Differential Association

Differential Association Theory

This theory was proposed by Sutherland in 1939, suggesting that offending behaviour can be explained entirely through social learning. It is regarded as a Socialogical theory as it suggests that people are socialised into the life of crime. The concept of this theory is that people vary in the time they associate with people who have more or less favourable attitudes towards crime and these attitudes influence their own attitudes and behaviour. Sutherland believed that he could create a mathematical formula which would predict whether or nt someone would turn to crime based on the frequency, duration and intensity of their social contacts.

What is Learned?-A child learns attitude towards crime, i.e wether it is desireable or not. Therefore a potential criminal is one which has learnt pro-criminal attitudes from those around them. Furthermore children will learn which crimes are acceptable within their community and also worth doing e.g. Burglary is acceptable but more violent crimes are not. Finally a child may learn about methods used while commiting crimes, Somes are quite complicated while some are easy (robbing a bank rather…