Differential Association Theory
Differential Association Theory
Differential Association Theory
Collar Crime
Differential Association Theory
• Differential association is a theory developed by Edwin
Sutherland (1883–1950) proposing that through interaction
with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes,
techniques, and motives for criminal behaviour.
• This theory focuses on how individuals learn to become
criminals.
• It explains criminal behavior through the process of socialization and
the contacts between members of social groups to which one belongs
a certain delinquent.
• Sutherland presented his theory of differential association in 1939 in
his work named Principles of Criminology.
• The theory was supplemented twice till 1947, in order to make many
changes later, and finally was shaped by Sutherland’s student Donald
R. Cressey.
• He considers that the scientific explanation for criminal behavior can
be expressed in terms of the process by which it is operated at the
moment of the crime happens.
• Some authors consider that the theory of differential association
belongs to a set of criminological theories that are called theories of
symbolic interaction (by George Herbert Mead and developed
by Herbert Blumer)
Symbolic Interaction Theory
1. Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings
they ascribe to those things.
2. The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out
of, the social interaction that one has with others and the
society.
3. The Meanings are handled in, and modified through, an
interpretative process used by the person in dealing with
the things he encounters.
Development of Differential Association Theory
• Before Sutherland introduced his theory of differential
association, the explanations for criminal behavior were varied
and inconsistent.
• Seeing this as a weakness, law professor Jerome Michael and
philosopher Mortimer J. Adler published a critique of the field
that argued that criminology hadn’t produced any scientifically-
backed theories for criminal activity.
• Sutherland saw this as a call to arms and used rigorous scientific
methods to develop differential association theory.
• According to this theory, an individual learns delinquent behavior,
accepts it from others, and learning flows through the communication
process.
• An individual becomes delinquent, if he accepts values that support
the violation of law, and not the values of conventional culture.
• The process of learning delinquent behavior involves all the
mechanisms that are important for learning in general.
Base taken from Gabriel Tarde
• Even the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde (1912) had found that
people learn delinquent behaviors through imitation and association,
just as they learn to pursue a profession.
• Edwin H. Sutherland got Tarde's idea as the basis and developed the
theory of the causes of delinquent behavior, which one he called the
theory of different association
• Sutherland hypothesized that people learn delinquent behavior
through association with people who violate social norms.
Rules are meant to be broken “Douglas MacArthur”
• George Void has maintained that Sutherland has ignored the role of secondary
contact and formal groups in criminality.
• Clarence Ray Jeffery holds that Sutherlands theory fails to explain the origin of
criminality since criminality has to exist before it can be learnt from someone
else.
• Mabel Elliot says Sutherlands theory explains only systematic criminal behaviour
by which Sutherland apparently means criminal behaviour that has become a
way of life for an individual and is supported by a philosophy in terms of which it
is justified.
• Herbert Bloch is of the opinion that it is virtually impossible
to measure associations in comparative quantitative terms.
• Glueck maintains that an individual does not learn every kind
of behaviour from others; many acts are learnt naturally.
• Caldwell says that individuals become what they are largely
because of the contacts they have but both constitutional or
inborn hereditary structure and intensity of environmental
stimuli must be appraised evenly.
• Daniel Glaser modified Sutherlands theory a little to explain from
whom an individual learns crime.
• He called this new theory as differential identification theory and
said that a person pursues criminal behaviour to the extent that he
identifies himself with real or imaginary persons from whose
perspective his criminal behaviour seems acceptable.