Psychological explanations of offending behaviour: Differential association

what is the differential association theory?

An explanation of offending behaviour in terms of learning theory, how interactions with others lead to the formation of attitudes about crime (which may be more or less favourable), as well as acquiring specific knowledge about how to commit crimes.

who proposed the differential association theory?

Edwin Sutherland

what is learnt in the differential association theory?

A child learns attitudes towards crime, i.e. whether it is desirable or undesirable. Thus a potential criminal is someone who has learned pro-criminal attitudes from those around them. Furthermore, children will learn which particular types of crimes are acceptable within their community and also desirable (i.e. worth doing). And finally, a child may also learn about specific methods for committing crimes.

who is crime learnt from according to the differential association theory?

• Attitudes and behaviours are learned from intimate personal groups, such as family and/or peer group.

• They are also learned from the wider neighbourhood.

• The individuals or social groups may not be criminals themselves, but they may still hold deviant attitudes or an acceptance of such attitudes.

what’d differential social organisation?

The degree to which the local community supports or opposes criminal involvement

what does differential social organisation determine?

determines the differences in crime rates from one area to another.

how is criminal behaviour learnt according to the differential association theory?

likely to be both direct and indirect operant conditioning. A child may be directly reinforced for deviant behaviours through praise, or may be punished for such behaviour by family and peers.

what did sutherland say will determine the degree of influence.

suggested that the frequency, length and personal meaning of such social associations will determine the degree of influence.

what do role models provide?

Role models would provide opportunities to model behaviours and, if the role models are successful themselves in criminal activities, this would provide indirect (vicarious) reinforcement.

what do social group do in relation to influencing behaviour?

they also establish norms by which we define behaviour.

what’s the major strength of this theory/major contribution?

The theory marked an important shift from blaming' individual factors to pointing to social factors. The theory suggested that crime did not need to be explained in terms of personality (mad or bad) but could be explained in terms of social experiences. Such an approach has important real-world implications because learning environments can be changed, whereas genes cannot be changed.

what is supporting evidence for sutherland theory?

Osborn and West (1979) found that, where there is a father with a criminal conviction, 40% of the sons had committed a crime by age 18 compared to 13% of sons of non-criminal fathers.

what did Akers find in his survey of 2,500 male and female adolescents in the US?

that the most important influence on drinking and drug behaviour was from peers; differential association, differential reinforcement and imitation combined to account for 68% of the variance in marijuana use and 55% of alcohol use.

what does supporting evidence suggest?

Family studies and peer group studies therefore provide support for differential association theory, although the effects of genetics cannot be disentangled.

why can’t differential association theory account for all crime?

Social learning influences are probably confined to smaller crimes rather than violent and impulsive offences such as rape and murder.

how is the differential association theory an example of environmental determinism?

The absence of biological factors from this account is a drawback. The diathesis-stress model may offer a better account by combining social factors with vulnerability factors. Such vulnerability factors may be innate genetic ones, or it might be that early experiences (such as maltreatment) act as a vulnerability.

who found evidence to support nature and nurture aspects of criminal behaviour?

Caspi, those with the MAOA-L gene were more likely to experience antisocial behaviour problems if they had also experienced maltreatment

what did Farrington do?

the cambridge study in delinquency development

what a was Farringtons aim?

to investigate the development of delinquency over time

what was Farrigntons procedure?

• collected data when boys were 8, continuing through adolescence and adulthood

• structured interviews, questionnaires with parents and teachers

• official criminal records were accessed to document behaviour

what was farringtons findings?

• 41% of pps had at least one conviction

• identified risk factors associated with criminal behaviour

what were the risk factors identified by Farrington?

• family background

• peer influence

• school performance

whats a strength of differential association theory?

• can explain a wide range of crimes,

• those who friends and families comes from more disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to commit crimes such as burglary, shoplifting and vandalism

• middle class backgrounds in more white colour jobs more likely to be involved in crimes such as fraud