Edwin Sutherland's Differential Association Theory



Edwin Sutherland's Differential Association Theory

Introduction

The study of crimes, criminology, elaborates the presence of “anti-social” behaviors of Homo-Sapiens. One can adopt distinct perspectives in examining the criminal behaviors. In general, criminology can be understood from pathological, biological, and social perspectives. There are some economic explanations of criminal behaviors, as well. Thus, theorists have documented their findings into different perspectives. In this regard, Edwin Sutherland's theory has a significant value. Edwin records his findings in his “Differential Association Theory”. The theorist presented sociological explanation for the criminology researchers.

In this write up, the discussion explores the main elements of the theory. Also, the discussion examines researches on Edwin's Theory. Further, the essay highlights the strengths & weakness of the theory.

Discussion

Differential Association Theory

Edwin analyzed the criminal behaviors from the sociological perspective. The theory rejects the pathological & biological explanations of the immoral attitudes. The theory exemplifies the influence of environment & society in the criminal studies, instead of genetics influence. The classical theories explain the criminology scope by defining the principles of individualism. On the other hand, Differential Association Theory records a distinct perspective. The theory asserts that an individual develops anti social behaviors when there is an excess of description of “encouraging violation”. Consequently, there are limited descriptions for the “discouraging violation” of the law. In other words, an individual feels motivated (to possess anti social behaviors) because of abundance in anti-social messaging. There are nine major findings of the Differential Association Theory. The main elements are as follows:

An individual may learn criminal behaviors. That means, an individual is not born with the criminal characteristics.

Criminal behaviors propagate through communication & social interactions.

Learning occurs among the intimate & close groups, like family gathering & friends circle (Larry, 2007).

Movies & print media do not play an influential role in constructing social behaviors. An individual learns about criminal behaviors in two ways: They either learn about the crime procedures or criminal motives. Criminal motives can vary from person to person (such as money or power motives).

The criminal motives are similar to non-criminal motives. For instance, the money motive is common to criminal & non-criminal personals. However, they have distinct patterns to achieve the same motive (Sutherland, 1974).

The learning process, for criminal behaviors, is similar to learning mechanisms for any other attribute. It may include associations & social interactions (Sutherland, 1974).

The perceptions, associated to the legal ...