psychological explinations of offending behaviour: Differential association

Evaluations-

Major contribution, marking a shift from the idea of a criminal personality to looking at social influences. It has real-life applications as learning enviroments can be changed whereas genes cannot be changed. Sutherland also introduced 'White collar crime'-Crime commited by the middle classes such as fraud, copyright infringements, forgery e.c.t.

Supporting evidence- 40% of sons with criminal fathers commit crimes compared to 13% with non-criminal fathers (Osborne and West); 68% of marijuana use and 55% alcohol use predicted by differential association adn reinforcement (Akers et al) surveying 2,500 male and female adolescents in the US to investigate drinking and drug behaviour. Found that most influence on deviant behaviours was from peers.

Methodological…