On June 17th 2015 in Charleston North Carolina a man by the name of Dylann Roff massacred nine people in a church in hope that he would cause a raise riot. Considering that Roff was only 21 years old leaves one to questions where he got all his beliefs. Differential association plays a big role here because three days after he was arrested a website titled The Last Rhodesian was discovered to be owned by Roff; The website contained photos of Roof posing with symbols of white supremacy and neo-Nazism, along with a manifesto in which he outlined his views towards blacks, among other people (Robles 2015). His manifesto also reviled that after the Trayvon Martin was the spark of his hate towards African Americans.
One can imagine that Roff had a bad childhood growing up, in North Carolina. North Carolina has recently been voted the 15th most racist state according to the top tens (Mcclung 2012). This helps explains why Roff felt he needed to start a race war. In his manifesto Roff said “I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country” (Bernstein 2015). He went as far as to say that he felt he needed …show more content…
Sutherland’s theory exemplifies the idea of obtaining, maintaining, and withholding criminal traits based on your surroundings. Differential association doesn’t discriminate so anyone is capable of learning crime. People in similar circumstances don’t commit crime because of the people they chose to be around. If I could add something to the theory it would be further explaining kids that grow up in positive homes and still chose to learn crime. Which leads me to wonder if the television or even video games can be considered differential association. If everyone tries to be positive role model I feel that crime can be reduced in a major
One can imagine that Roff had a bad childhood growing up, in North Carolina. North Carolina has recently been voted the 15th most racist state according to the top tens (Mcclung 2012). This helps explains why Roff felt he needed to start a race war. In his manifesto Roff said “I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country” (Bernstein 2015). He went as far as to say that he felt he needed …show more content…
Sutherland’s theory exemplifies the idea of obtaining, maintaining, and withholding criminal traits based on your surroundings. Differential association doesn’t discriminate so anyone is capable of learning crime. People in similar circumstances don’t commit crime because of the people they chose to be around. If I could add something to the theory it would be further explaining kids that grow up in positive homes and still chose to learn crime. Which leads me to wonder if the television or even video games can be considered differential association. If everyone tries to be positive role model I feel that crime can be reduced in a major