Differential Association Theories Of Criminal Behavior

Differential Association theory is a theory based on the learning of criminal behavior from those around us in society. Many communities can be described to be a portrayal of social disorganization because of the prominent criminality that has existed in a particular area. Edwin Sutherland was the first sociologist to come up with the idea that crime is learned and he came up with seven principles to define his theory, Differential Association Theory.
Social learning theories are theories in which all behavior is learned, even criminal behavior and it focuses on the communication and the learned patterns of criminality. Differential Association theory can be described as a Social Learning theory. In 1939, the earliest and the most prominent …show more content…
The first principle is that criminal behavior is learned. Sutherland said that criminal behavior was not a result of any biological circumstance. If we did not learn from other people than we are incapable of learning criminality. The second principle is that criminal behavior is learned through the communication and interaction with other people. Edwin Sutherland thought that this process of communicating would mostly involve verbal communication, but it would also include a person's body language. The third principle of Social Disorganization theory is the primary part of the learning criminal behavior comes about within close, personalized groups of people. Sutherland believed that close, intimate groups provided a great influence on criminality and that impersonal agencies of communication such as movies and news article were unimportant when considering the first occurrence of criminal behavior. The fourth principle states that when criminal behavior is learned, people learn the techniques to commit crime as well as the particular direction of motives such as reasoning and rationalizations. The techniques for committing crime can be simple or complicated. For example, if a person learns the techniques to commit the crime they also …show more content…
Akers published an article in 1966, titled, “A Differential Association-Reinforcement Theory of Criminal Behavior.” The Differential Reinforcement theory is an expansion of Differential Association. This theory adds reinforcements and punishments that are used to shape a behavior (Schmalleger, 2012). Burgess and Akers restructured Sutherland’s nine principles of Social Disorganization theory into seven principles. They added the idea of operant conditioning to those principles. This perspective said that people learn to behave in a certain manner depending on which behaviors they are rewarded for. For example, if an individual commits a criminal act they may continue to behave that way because of the way some individuals or groups of people have rewarded that behavior (Helfgott, 2008). In 1973, Akers published a book titled, “Deviant Behavior: A Social Learning Approach.” In his book, Ronald Akers identified two social learning methods which are differential reinforcement and imitation. Differential reinforcement is when a behavior is a function of prevalence, amount, and likelihood of experienced and anticipated benefits and penalties. Imitation is when an individual imitates the behaviors of others and its repercussions after observation. Akers stated that these learning methods include direct and indirect, verbal and nonverbal communications and interactions with other people. Interpersonal association is when an individual is exposed to