Who developed differential association theory?
Edwin H. Sutherland, first proposed in 1939.
What is the central claim of differential association theory?
Offending behaviour is learned through interaction and communication with other people, especially close social groups.
What are pro-criminal attitudes?
Beliefs, values or justifications that make offending appear acceptable, normal or worthwhile.
What are “definitions favourable to law-breaking”?
Messages or beliefs that support or excuse breaking the law.
What two things can offenders learn from others?
Attitudes and motives that support offending, and practical techniques for committing offences.
What does frequency mean in differential association theory?
How often a person is exposed to a particular social influence or set of attitudes.
What do duration, priority and intensity mean?
Duration is how long an association lasts; priority is how early it begins; intensity is how important or influential the person or group is.
Why can differential association theory explain white-collar crime?
It proposes that professionals can learn illegal attitudes and specialised techniques from workplace groups, so offending is not restricted to one social class.
What did Farrington et al. (2006) find?
In a longitudinal sample of 411 South London males, 41% were convicted by age 50 and about 7% accounted for more than half of convictions; family and social risk factors were linked with later offending.
Give one major limitation of differential association theory.
Its key concepts are difficult to measure objectively, and much supporting evidence is correlational, so cause and effect cannot be established confidently.