Edwin Sutherland’s theory of differential association proposes to explain how an individual comes to commit a criminal act. Sutherland’s proposition is that deviant and criminal behavior is learned behavior. He first set forth this theory in his 1939 textbook Principles of Criminology. His revised theory, which appeared in the 1947 edition of this text, has continued impact on the subject of the social learning of deviant behavior. Sutherland based his theory on the belief that a person learns to commit criminal acts through his social relationships (Cullen, 2014). Sutherland’s learning theory is summed up in nine statements revolving around the processes that influence an individual towards deviant behavior. Sutherland believed that an individual
