Differential Association

Edwin Sutherland’s theory of Differential Association theory is about an individual learning criminal behaviour through interaction with intimate groups. His theory includes four modalities, which are frequency, duration priority and intensity. Sutherland’s theory is seen

High crime rates are an ongoing issue through the United States, however the motivation and the cause of crime has yet to be entirely identified. Ronald Akers would say that criminality is a behavior that is learned based on what an individual sees and observes others doing. When an individual commits a crime, he or she is acting on impulse based on actions that they have seen others engage in. Initially during childhood, individuals learn actions and behavior by watching and listening to others, and out of impulse they mimic the behavior that is observed. Theorist Ronald Akers extended Sutherland’s differential association theory with a modern viewpoint known as the social learning theory. The social learning theory states that

His theory has a nine proposition outline. 1) Criminal behavior is learned. 2) Criminal behavior is learned through communication and social interactions, not necessarily because they have only or at all, witnessed it. 3) Newspapers, film, television, or other forms of impersonal types of communicating are less influencing to deviance than being involved in personal groups such as inmates or rough friends. 4) Not only are techniques used to commit crimes learned behaviors, but so are the motivations, rationalization, and individual’s attitude. 5) The way a culture views concepts as deviant or not deviant is how individuals learn pro-criminal and anti-criminal understandings of the law. 6) Just being around criminal behavior does not necessarily mean one will become a criminal. It depends upon the ration of criminal and non-criminal influences in one’s life. 7) Duration and priority of being influenced by the criminal acts largely plays a role in learning the behaviors. 8) Learning not only teaches people to imitate behavior, criminal or not, but on a deeper level grows to understand and develop these behaviors, whatever they may be. 9) What motivates a crime, or non-criminal, law abiding behavior cannot and will not be the same for

as a general concept, social learning theory has been applied to the many different fields of social science to explain why certain individuals develop motivation to commit (or abstain from) crime and develop the skills to commit crime through the people they associate with. Social Learning Theory (SLT) is one of the most frequently looked at theories in the criminology field. This theory was introduced by Ronald L. Akers as a reformulation of Edwin H. Sutherland 's (1947) differential association theory of crime meld with principles of behavior psychology (Bradshaw, 2011). Akers retained the concepts of differential association and definitions from Sutherland 's theory, but conceptualized them in more behavioral terms and

Edwin H. Sutherland’s formulation of differential association theory proposed that delinquency, like any other form of behavior, is a product of social interaction. On October 14th, 2002, 17 year old Lee Boyd Malvo was charged by the state of Virginia for two capital crimes: the murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin "in the commission of an act of terrorism" and the murder of more than one person in a three-year period. Sutherland’s nine propositions of differential association best explains Malvo’s act for the following reasons: (1) Malvo learned how to commit each heinous crime through his social interaction within his intimate group, (2) Malvo learned the techniques to commit each crime through his mentor, i.e. learning the skills

And on the other hand how “Code of the Streets” shows links to the Differential Association and Social Learning theories of crime. The Differential Association (closely related to Social Disorganization theory), developed by Edwin Sutherland, and Social Learning theory, developed by Ronald Akers, both theories of crime are theories that try to explain, at a micro-level, why individuals rather than groups of individuals commit crime (Feldmeyer, Differential Association and Social Learning, 2015).

From birth, our families, friends, and society influenced our choices. We were told what we could and could not accept. The music we listened to, the food we ate, and the clothes we wore were all influenced by someone in our community or household. These experiences from your childhood tend to determine the choices we will make as adults. We are living in a world that approaches life with a black or white perceptive, meaning decisions in life are either morally right or morally wrong. Differential Association Theory is defined as a criminological theory created by Edwin Sutherland that focuses on criminal behavior being learned through association with others (Walsh, 559). The theory focuses on an individual’s life that could lead them to a life of crime.

Social learning theory argues that crime and the manifestation of deviant behaviors are socially learned behaviors (Schram, & Tibbetts, 2018). The key factor in the

The Social Learning Theory is similar to the Differential Association Theory in the respect that they both depend on the approval of others. It says that "...crime is something learned by normal people as they adapt to other people and the conditions of their environment" (Bohm, 2001: 82). People learn by reinforcement weather it is positive or negative. Growing up Kody began to feel more and more that his mom no longer expressed any love or care for him, but that she only nagged him. After returning home from juvenile hall the greeting that Kody got from his mother wasn't exactly what he wanted. "I knew she meant well, but I wasn't up to it tonight. I wanted to be loved, to be missed, to be wanted, not scolded" (Scott, 1993: 173). The

It is known that crime is caused through imitation, arousal and desensitising. The social Learning theory (2009), looks at how people engage in crime due to their associations. It explains that a person’s behaviour is a product of the people who surround ourselves – people imitate those who people admire. Theorist Bandura (1997) had completed an experiment in which looked at

Sutherland, both a sociologist and professor, developed Differential Association theory in 1939. Sutherland made a realization that crime happens in all social standings, not just the lower class. According to Sutherland, criminal activity is not inherent but learned. For example, children are not born to be racist but learn racism either through a family member or a close group of friends or acquaintances. Although Differential Association theory is a learned behavior, one needs to mentor someone on how to engage in deviant behavior and also how to have the right motivation and attitude to commit illegal corruption. What is the person undertaking the activity going to get out of the deviant behavior money, approval from friends or a better job? Criminals know that committing a crime is wrong, but they somehow have to rationalize to themselves that its alright because of the guilt they feel. Differential Association theory also states that people committing these crimes are doing it because it's more promising to violate the law than not too. Likewise, just because people commit deviant acts doesn’t mean they will continue to engage in those acts later in life according to

Edwin Sutherland and Donald Cressey developed the Differential Association Theory (DAT) to explain criminal behavior as, like any other behavior, is learned through other people. When this theory was created, females were ignored from the study. However, this theory has been used as a general, non-sex-specific theory to explain both male and female offending. DAT examines how people interact with others to learn values, attitudes, and specifically techniques to offending. Social relationships, like peers and family, can influence women to start offending by showing or teaching them how to commit a crime (Belknap 34-35). For disadvantaged people living in inner cities this is the way of life for them. This theory associates with the cycle of violence and code of the street concepts. People who are already committing crimes start the cycle of violence and show the next generation how to offend for safety reasons relating to the code of the street

Bandura believes that people decide whether or not to adopt what behavior’s they observe (Bandura, 1977). There is a common perception that a criminal is has suffered a deprived childhood, or is from a broken home and lacks a good education etc, but this is not true fact as there is all kinds that go astray and for no apparent reason. As someone may have a good life and has made it big and all of a sudden that is not good enough for them and they decide that embezzling millions from their company they work for is a good ideal for unknown reasons. Law enforcement professionals use criminal theory to understand criminal actions as Sutherland's major sociological contribution to criminology was a differential association theory as it was similar to the importance to the strain theory and social control theory. The individual's social relationship explains the deviance of these theories. Both biological and classical theories, poses no obvious threats to the humane treatment of those identified as criminals."(Gaylord, 1988:1) In the 1939 edition of Principles of Criminology, the first statement of the theory of differential association appears and in the fourth edition as he presents his final theory. As follows his theory has 9 basic postulates. 1. Criminal behavior is learned.

Based on Ronald Akers ideology of social learning theory, many people commit crimes based on the observations they encounter. These observations can come from a number of sources such as, media, family, and peers. Family and friends as well as the social norms of a neighborhood can be influential to an individual because of acceptance. This theory also says that based on positive or negative reinforcements an individual’s behavior will be based on the rewards or punishments that are given. If given an opportunity to change the violence that occurs among neighborhoods there are many who choose to do so (Akers, 1990).

These two theories are social learning and social control. Akers' social learning theory comes from the instrumental perspective, which assumes that people will act according to the utilitarian principle, in which people act to maximize rewards and minimize punishments. People are believed to learn which behaviors will provide what penalty or reward through differential reinforcement. With this theory, in order for authorities to get people to follow the laws they would need to utilize peoples fear of punishment. However, this is a lot easier said than done, primarily due to the amount of time and money a society would have to